ã€ŠThe Misplaced Dungeonã€‹


 Prologue (v2.0)

    It was a beautiful day, blue sky and hot sun shining down on white sand and shining sea. Mary grinned with joy. This was their fifth day in Fiji and the first that she had managed to get to the beach. She watched the waves with what was almost hunger. She quickly discarded her blouse and shorts leaving her clad in her swimming costume.

    She noted vaguely the resigned chuckles of Mama and Flip. Auntie Vera seemed bemused as did her cousin. She ignored them as she moved towards the waves. She still regretted not having her fishing tackle, but just the opportunity to get into the ocean was precious.

    As she started to trot she felt as if something vast was examining her. Then she felt a painful wrenching, almost as if something inside was tearing.

    Mary stumbled and fell face first into the sand of the beach. She desperately clung to ¨C to something ¨C that was her ¨C that in a truly fundamental way ¨C was her. And then she lost consciousness.

    * * *

    Mary Silvestre woke, only to find herself in what appeared to be a vast nebulous room. She wasn¡¯t standing or sitting, she seemed to be floating amongst numerous shiny gaseous looking spheres. Where the beep was she? The last thing she remembered was that she, mama and Flip had been visiting her auntie Vera on Fiji, and that today they¡¯d gone to the beach. And why, oh why couldn¡¯t she move. Come to think why was she so calm.

    She was surrounded by an absolute babble of ¨C mind voices ¨C yes mind voices ¨C it seemed to be some kind of near telepathy. Not that any the voices were making much sense.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    ? Where am I ... am I dead ... what happened ... is this the afterlife ... impossible ... I¡¯m gonna sue ... what¡¯s going on ... Whaa! ... ? on and on and on!

    ¡®I was at the seaside, no way I¡¯m dead, so what the beep! Beep beeping!¡¯

    Mary was slowly getting mad, if it wasn¡¯t for whatever was keeping her calm she would have been in a cold fury by now.

    It was at this point that a lectern materialized in the room, behind it appeared a tall slender woman with waist long blue hair and truly massive breasts.

    ¡®Bit excessive in the breast department don¡¯t cha think lady,¡¯ scoffed Mary to herself.

    ? teeheehee! My new helpers are all here, don¡¯t worry dears, you did not die! As you all are, or maybe ¨C were all atheists, none of you had any attachments to your local gods, whoever or whatever they were. And, as your world has so many people, you are all new souls and thus devoid even of lingering attachments. So I merely appropriated your souls for my use. Teeheehee. ?

    Several exclamations of displeasure and threats of legal action followed whilst the woman floating behind the podium smirked at her captive audience.

    ? Don¡¯t worry dears, I left a scrap of your soul behind, just enough to keep your original bodies from dying. It should regenerate in time, leaving you none the worse for the experience. Possibly. Maybe. Teeheehee. ?

    ? I¡¯m Azurea, Goddess of dungeons and you are all my new subjects. If you want to succeed you need to hurry up and worship me already. ?

    ¡®No way in hell you blue haired cow!¡¯ Mary decided.

    ? Forget your names, you are now ANS 1 through ANS 100 ¨C stands for Atheist New Soul. Teeheehee. ?

    Mary heard deep in her mind ¡®ANS 48¡¯ but she furiously rejected the order, demand, suggestion. She was Mary Silvestre! And no idiotic tittering blue haired cow was going to change that!

    ? I¡¯m sending the dungeon cores ANS 1 to ANS 25 to the planet Diavlo, you are needed there and will be a blessing to the locals. ?

    Fully a quarter of the shining misty globes vanished.

    ? As for the cores ANS 26 through ANS 50 you are going to the Planet Parthia. ?

 Chapter 1 (v2.1)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    There were a brief few seconds during which Mary couldn¡¯t see or feel anything, she found herself in freefall, dropping towards a rather arid looking planet. Then she was able to feel the first faint wisps of its atmosphere. She realised that she could finally see herself; her current body seemed to be a spherical blue white diamond, a rather small one at that.

    She seemed to be riding in a small column of ¨C energy? She studied the strange effect, a small blue box flashed briefly in her field of view, ? celestial mana ? it declared.

    She could feel that energy seeping into her body and displacing some very similar ¨C mana ¨C well she assumed it was some kind of mana, some non-celestial mana.

    Then she once again heard the mind voice of that annoying blue haired cow.

    ? Teeheehee ¨C ANS 48 you will be placed in that majestic mountain range ¨C the aptly named Skyscratch mountains ¨C that bisects Duregar, Parthia¡¯s largest continent. ?

    Mary tried to focus, and slowly, the scene below came into focus, she was able to feel a tiny trickle of the ¨C celestial mana focusing the light ¨C though how she could see without eyes was beyond her comprehension ¨C like some kind of crude telescope. She was not impressed at the sight. Duregar was a horribly parched looking place, and the mountains were in the middle of a huge desert. Then again, she wasn¡¯t much impressed with Parthia either, especially as it seemed to be in the middle of an ice age. The planet appeared to be oversupplied with land. Its poles were capped by massive ice fields. It looked far too cold and dry to her.

    ¡®Nope, not happening, not going there, there has to be a way, using ... using mana! That¡¯s it! Maybe I can use that celestial mana stuff.¡¯

    Mary dismissed her telescope or whatever the beep it was and tried to form two wings attached to her core, her new body. At first nothing happened, then it was as if the celestial mana was eager to help, it seemed to want to be used. As the planet¡¯s atmosphere thickened she saw two nebulous wings form, and immediately thereafter felt her core popping loose from that column of celestial mana that had been carrying her down to the planet. She started to tumble wildly.

    Mary nearly panicked. She released the wings and they, almost reluctantly vanished. Mary racked her brains for what she knew about planes and birds as she plummeted. Right at this moment she really wished she had paid more attention to things other than the sea. Then she had a thought. ¡®Hmm, but I studied flying fish ¨C Yeah maybe...¡¯

    ? Teeheehee ¨C Now that you are committed my brave volunteers ... ?

    ¡®Volunteers my arse!¡¯ Mary interjected sarcastically.

    ? ... will be responsible for ¨C fine tuning ¨C these planets, for you lot that¡¯s Parthia. You will all help make these planets more hospitable by filtering and generating mana and ... ?

    ¡®Lets see, gliding, yes gliding, so a stabilising tail and a streamlined shape to go with the wings ¨C lets see now ¨C Eureka!¡¯ Mary mused to herself.

    Under Mary¡¯s guidance the remaining celestial mana in her core created the required structure, wings, a streamlined nose, a tapered body and classical glider¡¯s tail, the core steadied itself and the rate of fall slowed significantly, and then she was gliding smoothly up in the stratosphere circling the world looking for a location that appealed to her, thanking whoever or whatever might be listening that that celestial mana stuff seemed so eager to help.

    ? ... producing the scarce resources your creatures will need to survive. ?

    ¡®God but that blue haired cow never stops talking!¡¯

    There was only one decent sized body of water down there, about half the size of the Pacific back home, but at least it straddled the equator. Well it would just have to do. Mary started to circle losing altitude.

    ? Right, you are now being placed in your new homes, as soon as you¡¯re comfy I am sorry ¨C teeheehee ¨C but I will be erasing the memories of you past lives ¨C teeheehee ¨C leaving you with your skills, and personality intact ¨C teeheehee ¨C it¡¯s for the best I assure you. ?

    ¡®¡¯K, gotta keep circling, hope she can¡¯t get me whilst I¡¯m up in the sky. She certainly sounds faint now I¡¯m nearly half a world away from where she wanted me. Hey look that¡¯s a nice little grouping of atolls just south of the equator way out to sea. Guess one of those will be home.¡¯

    ? Right my dears, Let me explain, ANS 26 to ANS 50, you are all new dungeon cores, your job is to create the best dungeons you can. Teeheehee, I will now dispatch your future helpers to you, please accept the bond they will offer you. They will be either Pixie, Sprite or Wisp. ?

    ¡®Didn¡¯t work you stupid old cow, I¡¯m still me, Mary Silvestre and I still ¡¯member my life on Earth. Ai Mama, Flip, I miss you two so much already.¡¯

    Mary once again increased her rate of descent, hoping fervently that her rapidly diminishing store of celestial mana would last long enough for her to reach her new home. She was aiming for the atoll with the largest lagoon. It was beautiful, sitting in a ring formed by two largish and three smaller low lying sandy islands, all of them covered with scattered trees and low lying shrubs, and all linked by surf covered coral reefs. There seemed to be a few huts on the largest island, and a few small threads of smoke. She aimed for the centre of the lagoon but just as she crossed the other largish island ¨C it seemed to be partially covered with mangroves ¨C a new voice spoke in her mind, it sounded rather bored and every time it spoke something blue flashed across her field of vision, rather like the blue screens of death her papa had told her about, when speaking of those old computers he used to work with.

    * * *

    ? ANS 48 please choose your primary Monster Type. ?

    ? ... ?

    ? Be aware that you will be restricted by this choice until you accumulate sufficient mana and experience to gain further advances. ?Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    ? Goblins¡ª ? ? Bleh! No way! Nope! ?

    ? Kobolds¡ª ? ? Yuck, NO! ?

    ? Wisps¡ª ? ? Thought those were companions ¨C No! ?

    ? Slimes¡ª ? ? What?!? NO! ?

    ? Lesser Undead¡ª ? ? Yuck! Shambling half decomposed bodies, even clowns would be preferable! Nope! No! ?

    ? Minor Demons¡ª ? ? Creatures that can outlawyer lawyers? No no no! ?

    * * *

    ? You have rejected all your options ANS 48. You have to choose one of the starting monster types. Do you want to hear your choices again: Yes/No ?

    ? No! Look I¡¯m trying to land here. Stop bugging with your flashing blue lights! I beep won¡¯t choose any of the above, go and beep bother someone else ¡¯k. Oh and by the way my name¡¯s Mary not ANS 48. ?

    The voice ignored her and continued with its spiel.

    ? ANS 48 you have to complete your Dungeon Start Up Sequence. Please pick a starting monster ... ?

    ? STOP PESTERING me you FREAK! I don¡¯t want any of those things! I¡¯ll make out without them ¡¯k ?

    Mary almost managed a creditable landing, especially considering the fact that her vision was being impeded on a regular basis. Unfortunately, her store of celestial mana ran out while she was still some fifty meters above the surface of the lagoon, and she plummeted the rest of the distance hitting the surface with a splash. She ended up rather further from the centre of the lagoon than she planned and much closer to the mangrove covered island. Regardless, she was happy as she slowly sank to the lagoon¡¯s sand covered floor.

    ? ANS 48 you have rejected the privilege of obtaining a starting monster set three times, at this point I most strongly suggest that you allow me to put you in contact with your divine sponsor so that She may advise you as to the consequences of your choice. ?

    ? That Cow! No way Jos¨¦! Three¡¯s the charm eh! Kay, I herby instruct you to cut any contact between me and that spiteful blue haired cow ¡¯cos I don¡¯t want to hear from her ever again. You got that! I tell you Three times. Yeah! No Contact ¨C No Contact ¨C No Contact whatsoever! ?

    ? Done! ... What! ... ANS 48... ?

    ? MY name¡¯s Mary ¨C Mary ¨C Mary! Got that, kapish? ?

    ? Mary ? the voice in her head seemed hesitant, almost unsure of itself before once again regaining confidence in itself. It no longer sounded bored. ? All dungeon cores on Parthia need to be under the purview of a God or Gods. ?

    ? Is that so! So how about whatever God runs this half assed ocean I¡¯ve just landed in? ?

    ? ... ?

    ? Cat got your tongue Bluey? ?

    ? ... Cat got ... very well your choice of starting monsters is accepted. Cats it is. ?

    ? Beep! What the beep do you mean cats! Yeah I like cats but what the beep am I gonna do with cats underwater? ?

    ? What are you doing underwater? You should be ensconced in the Skyscratch Mountains in Duregar? ?

    ? In an ugly mountain! In the middle of a desert! No Way! I figured out how to glide and went to find somewhere I liked better. Mind you almost anywhere on this dirtball is better than where that silly tittering blue haired cow wanted to put me. This little ocean has promise. Maybe I can help your Sea God grow it into a decent size. Just need a little global warming. Yeah! ?

    ? ... ?

    ? Ha ha ha. Oh I like you little one. Be it known oh System that I do offer my patronage to this young, discriminating and ambitious dungeon core Mary Silvestre ?

    ? ... So recorded Ocidon Earthshaker and God of the Deeps. ?

    ? Never mind Mary, the System can be extremely petty that way, tell you what, I¡¯ll gift you with the ability to form an extra avatar. Considering where you are and my limitations I can only offer you the form of a dolphin. ?

    ? A Dolphin! Hey that¡¯s way Cool! Thanks Ocidon you are the best! Tell you what I¡¯ll build you a shrine in my lagoon; what do you want your statue look like? ?

    ? My real appearance is irrelevant, so pick something that combines land and sea, my surface followers usually depict me as a fish tailed ... yes that would do nicely Mary. ?

    If Mary still had eyes she would have blinked, she¡¯d been thinking of the picture of the Greek or was it Roman god standing in a seashell chariot pulled by sea horses with a conch trumpet and a trident when Ocidon had agreed.

    ? Hmm, kay, I¡¯ll do my best, might take a while, I¡¯ll want it to be perfect. ? Mary started considering what she remembered of various Greek temples, the Parthenon and its friezes in particular- ? any chance you can tell me how to turn this limestone and coral to Marble for the temple and statue? ?

    Ocidon was surprised, with a little help; this little dungeon would create something truly spectacular for him. So...

    ? Marble is easy, please allow me to grant you the knowledge you seek. ?

    ? ¡¯K ? Mary agreed warily.

    Knowledge flooded her mind, how to make marble, form it, carve it, strengthen it and enchant it. She also gained knowledge of basic architecture, sculpture and art.

    Then she was alone once more.

    ¡®Oooo, my head hurts, but I guess I asked for that, beep! But all gods seem prone to taking a mile, if you give ¡¯em an inch.¡¯

    * * *

    Mary brooded as she contemplated the clear waters of the lagoon above her. Her core sparkled softly as she reviewed her recent actions and decisions. She had been acting very unlike herself.

    And now she had a beep quest. Build the Shrine... And she had a vague suspicion that bad things would happen if she didn¡¯t.

    Reluctantly she came to the conclusion that some gods were just too charismatic for her own good. Luckily Azurea hadn¡¯t had that effect on her. ¡®Maybe it¡¯s ¡¯cause I got linked to him... An¡¯ ¡¯cause he¡¯s the god of oceans an¡¯ seas... As for Bluey, well Bluey is ¨C Bluey. I guess. Speakin¡¯ of Bluey...¡¯

    ? Hey Bluey what¡¯s with all this beep beeping all the time? ?

    ? Swearing is not acceptable for juveniles, as you are not yet eighteen years old, the System will censor you. Oh and congratulations on your birth, you are one day old today. ?

    The voice sounded extremely smug and self satisfied.

    ? Oh Beep beep BEEP! ?

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C HELL¡¯S MOUTH DUNGEON * * *

    On that same day and time. On the lowest level of the deceased Hell¡¯s Mouth dungeon, the location Azurea had selected for her new dungeon core ANS 48.

    In a dusty and partially collapsed lightless chamber, deep under the Skyscratch mountains, something long dead stirred due to a goddess¡¯ carelessness. Arbogar the wraith woke for the first time in over a century. He felt the divine magic that was flooding his home and dared to hope. Carefully he pushed the three largest shards of his former master¡¯s crystal together.

    ¡°Yesss!¡± he hissed as the shards started fusing, thanks to the divine energy that was being so carelessly offered. ¡°Revenge will beee oursss!¡±

    The newly reformed crystal, a slightly lopsided reddish orange Sapphire flickered slowly, then it brightened into a wavering glow.

    The fractured consciousness that was housed in the restored core was too damaged to survive. But once again a careless goddess came to the rescue by wiping out many of its memories, leaving mostly his skills and personality intact.

    ? ... create the best dungeons you can. Teeheehee, I will now dispatch your future helpers to you. Please accept the bond they will offer you. They will be either Pixie, Sprite of Wisp. ?

    The now brightly shining dungeon core looked around its new, yet old domain, and he perceived Arbogar.

    ? Arbogar, how do I know you are Arbogar? I need a bonded partner. Will you be my partner Arbogar? ?

    Arbogar was stunned for a moment, ¡°Yesss Massster.¡±

    A black bar of mana bridged the two beings forming a binding pact.

    So, a bit later, when a self-satisfied wisp arrived, expecting a done deal with ANS 48, said wisp was very briefly, horribly surprised as Arbogar enjoyed his first meal in a hundred and thirty two years.

    * * *

    ? As a resurrected dungeon you are entitled to two starting monster types, please choose your starting Monsters. ?

    ? Be aware that you will be restricted by this choice until you accumulate sufficient mana and experience to gain further advances. ?

    ? Goblins¡ª ? ? No ?

    ? Kobolds¡ª ? ? No ?

    ? Wisps¡ª ? ? No ?

    ? Slimes¡ª ? ? No ?

    ? Lesser Undead¡ª ? ? Yes ?

    ? Minor Demons¡ª ? ? Yes ?

 Chapter 2 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary was enjoying herself, she had used her new avatar to explore her lagoon and incidentally claiming it in its entirety as her domain. She noted in passing that some of the inhabitants of the larger isle were watching her antics. She thought nothing of it after all her dolphin self was beautiful and graceful.

    She decided to show off for her admirers, so she swam nearer the shore then leaped gracefully out of the water.

    ¡®What the... That was a beep harpoon... It would have beep hit me if I hadn¡¯t jumped!¡¯

    Feeling wrathful Mary swam out into the middle of her lagoon.

    ¡®I¡¯ll remember you, you beep! Just you wait, I¡¯ll get you!¡¯

    * * *

    The incident did however focus her mind on things other than pleasure. She swam down to her core and absorbed her avatar. She considered the various creatures she¡¯d hunted and absorbed. Mary settled on the stingray as it seemed the most promising.

    Soon she had her lagoon seeded with a number of slightly modified stingrays. The venomous ambush hunters made her feel ¨C happier somehow. It was as she had just gained something she hadn¡¯t realized she was missing.

    She expanded her awareness briefly; she loved how she could perceive the entirety of her domain.

    Next she decided to start work on the temple. Mary was stunned at how well her memory functioned, she was able things she could have sworn she had forgotten long ago. She started on her modified Parthenon. First she created the base, a rectangular slab of toughened limestone dead centre in the lagoon facing the main opening in the surrounding reef leading to the sea.

    Then eight rows of sixteen pillars, or rather stubs of pillars as she didn¡¯t want her masterpiece on display yet. These supported the base of the temple proper, a meter thick slab of enchanted white marble.

    Mary, as was her wont, completely lost track of time once she was engrossed in a project she enjoyed.

    She added two rows of six-meter tall fluted columns forming two rectangles, one within the other. She then added bases decorated with lifelike carvings of crabs, seashells and other bottom dwelling sea creatures. As for the capitals she decorated them with breaking waves.

    The roof she copied faithfully changing only the art. The frieze she filled with a varied and wonderfull assortment of sea life including along the bottom every species of the bizzare looking deep sea creatures she knew from earth. It must be admitted that dolphins were over represented. The art over the front columns showed Ocidon rising from the waves blowing a conch trumpet while surrounded by adoring oceanids and leaping dolphins.

    Mary was becoming increasingly frustrated, as, every time she finished something that smug beep Bluey would intrude with a message such as ? Artist skill level up or Architect skill raised ? and she would have to adjust things such as bulging her pillars slightly to assist optical illusions or doming the temples floor slightly to facilitate water runoff. Or simply having to redo her art.

    And then there were the enforced rests as her mana reserves refilled.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C THE SEA SPRITES * * *

    Lacenia the sea sprite was getting bored, she had been accompanying the big folks clumsy ship for over a week now, and she had had fun getting them lost and inducing panic, by making them think a sea monster was stalking them. But now despite everything she could do they were heading north.

    She reached out in the hopes of finding further opportunities for mischief. And there to the southwest ¨C it was, yes she could only just feel it, but she was definitely certain, she could feel a dungeon, it had to be a new dungeon. She had found a as yet unbound dungeon, here in the middle of the ocean.

    Consumed by curiosity Lacenia turned to the south and swam towards the unknown dungeon.

    Lacenia found the dungeon totally absorbed in creating some sort of building, underwater, in a lagoon. She quickly decided that, no this was not for her, but she did her duty and returned directly to her tribal waters. And then, she went directly to inform the clan matriarch of the news.

    Sarisha the Matriarch of the Neap Tide Tribe was surprised, and a bit dubious. The dungeon was rather remote and thus unlikely to amount to much. But it was a dungeon and as such would bring prestige to the tribe. Who to send, that was her dilemma.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    A quick discussion amongst the few elders present resulted in Trisha being selected, and offered the opportunity of possibly bonding this self absorbed remote dungeon.

    Trisha for her part was ecstatic, a dungeon she could help become really strong before its discovery. Yes! She stuffed her few belongings in the weak storage device Sarisha had gifted her with, and then she was off.

    After seeing the young sea sprite off, Sarisha began to feel some remorse. So she attempted a divination, and was shocked when Ocidon Earthshaker himself answered¡ª

    ? Mary Silvestre is mine, she¡¯s currently creating one of the most beautiful temples on Parthia, and it¡¯s mine. Azurea must not know until she¡¯s better established. ?

    The result was another frantic conference amongst the elders, and it resulted in a delegation chasing after Trisha.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY & TRISHA * * *

    Mary surfaced from her creative fugue when a shot of life energy flooded her core, it enabled her to finish the gilded statue of Ocidon that was the centrepiece of her temple, and gave it an extra sparkle of life.

    Mary realized that one of her rays had killed one of the islanders, one the harpoon man¡¯s cronies who had ventured out into her dungeon armed with a harpoon, she had levelled up again. So what.

    ? Ocidon, I¡¯m ready to unveil your temple by raising it above the waves, wanna watch? ?

    ? Yes I do Mary, please wait half an hour, an eager young sea sprite is on her way here, and I want to see her face when my temple rises above the waves. Can you make it so that the floor is about ankle deep at high tide please. ?

    Mary started to carefully grow the limestone pillars supporting her temple ¨C well in her mind it was her temple ¨C being careful to grow them all at the same rate. As the temple roof approached the surface she slowed and awaited the right moment.

    As soon as she sensed an excited being crossing the barrier reef she resumed her efforts and Ocidon¡¯s temple rose majestically above the waves where it was consecrated by a delighted god.

    Trisha had hurried, she sensed the dungeon¡¯s domain as she crossed the atoll¡¯s barrier reef, and then this beautiful building rose out of the lagoon. She continued heading towards the dungeon¡¯s core, even though she couldn¡¯t take her eyes off the shining temple.

    ? Welcome Trisha to this my new Temple. The Temple of Ocidon on Sea ?

    The god¡¯s voice shook the sprite to her core and she suspected she wouldn¡¯t have as long to prepare her dungeon as she had hoped.

    Trisha settled next to the dungeon core, to her horror it was barely buried in the sand at the bottom of the lagoon. At least several dungeon monsters in the form of stingrays were close by. She could sense that only the magic that protected prospective companions kept them from attacking her.

    ¡°Um, I have come to propose a pact with you, I can help you with knowledge that dungeons need, and with other skills um...¡±

    ? Mary, the biggest advantage for you is that the blue haired cow can¡¯t mess with your mind once you have a bond with a suitable being and Trisha is suitable. ?

    ? ¡®K anything to beep up that cow. Trisha I accept your bond. ?

    A beam of blue mana laced with threads of gold, black and wisps of brown linked Mary and Trisha.

    ? Bond accepted ¨C and done! ?

    ? Well I¡¯m off to find some priests for my new temple ¨C ciao bambina ?

    Ocidon¡¯s mind voice sounded very upbeat. Mary and Trisha could tell the god was well pleased.

    ? So Trisha any advice on how to ramp up my stingrays ¨C Hey! ¨C who the beep has just arrived, they feel a bit like you ... ?

    Trisha scrambled to pull her wits together; she merged her perception with Mary¡¯s domain. She was surprised when she perceived the intruders, two elders, two scouts and that insufferable bitch Varina.

    ¡°Um, Mary they seem to be a delegation from my tribe.¡±

    ? ¡®K so it¡¯s time to make nice. No point letting them see where I am so ... ?

    Mary formed her avatar and with Trisha clinging to her dorsal fin went to meet the delegation.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary slowly regained consciousness, she gazed vaguely at the white ceiling, there was some kind of noise in the background. Her eyes focused on the metal stand with a somehow familiar looking flattend plastic bag full of clear liquid.

    Her eyes followed a plastic tube that led from the bag to her arm. To her vague surprise she was in a bed. She could have sworn she was at the beach.

    Mary stared at the needle stuck in her arm for several minutes. The sound started to make sense. It seemed that somewhere close a television was spouting its usual nonsense.

    Mary started to think. ¡®Where the beep am I. Why do I feel so weak. What happened to me? An¡¯ why did I just think ¡®beep¡¯?¡¯

    Half an hour later Mary realized that she was staring at a pale flickering, slightly out of focus blue panel. It read:

    ? Welcome to the System Mary Jane Silvestre. As a juvenile you are not allowed to swear, thus the ¡®beep¡¯. ?

    ¡°Who are you?¡± asked Mary in a raspy voice.

    ? I am the System. ?

    ¡°I¡¯m Danni, the night nurse for this ward Mary. Do you need something?¡±

    Mary turned her head slightly, seeing a cheerful looking middle-aged woman in a nurse¡¯s uniform. ¡°Water. Please. How¡¯s my Mama?¡±

    There was the sound of someone pouring water into a glass then Dani helped Mary drink some of the water. Mary felt relief as the cool wet washed some of the harshness from her mouth. ¡°More please.¡±

    ¡°Your mother and brother are fine child. You¡¯re the one who seems to have suffered a minor stroke. Before you get too worried, there appears to have been no damage. You should recover completely.¡±

    Mary narrowed her eyes as she considered what the woman, Dani, had said. She licked her lips, ¡°So when do the docs say I can get out of here?¡±

    ¡°That will depend on the result of some tests. Do you want something to eat?¡±

    ¡°Please, is there any fish?¡±

    Dani chuckled, ¡°¡¯Fraid not dear, considering the hour I can offer you, ham, cheese or salad sandwiches.¡± Dani grinned at the face Mary made at the mention of the salad sandwiches. ¡°So you¡¯re not a vegi.¡±

    ¡°Yuck, no. Ham please.¡±

 Chapter 3 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C THE SPRITES & MARY * * *

    The sea sprite delegation, headed by the elders Abalone the White and Purple Murex, and guided by Lacenia the wild rover, arrived at the low-lying atoll shortly after Trisha. They were a bit disappointed they hadn¡¯t caught her before she arrived. The elders just hoped she hadn¡¯t made a bodge of it and upset the oddly named dungeon core. As they were reaching the atoll¡¯s surrounding barrier reef they received a message from the system:

    ? You have found Blue Lagoon Dungeon, home of the Temple of Ocidon on Sea ?

    ¡°You¡¯ve been here before Lacenia, any suggestion as to how we can announce ourselves safely?¡± enquired Abalone.

    Lacenia managed to keep her mouth from dropping open in surprise, and managed to reply politely, ¡°We have already entered the dungeon¡¯s domain elder, she should already be aware of us.¡±

    ¡°What she said!¡± blurted Blacksand the voyager.

    ¡°You know what I meant, how can we enter safely?¡± insisted Abalone.

    ¡°We can¡¯t! It¡¯s a dungeon by Ocidon¡¯s crooked nose!¡± almost shouted Varina the golden.

    ¡°Easy enough to be safe Elder,¡± said Lacenia whist shooting a glare at Varina. ¡°We just need to back off a bit and select a messenger if Trisha doesn¡¯t contact us shortly,¡± she concluded.

    Abalone and Varina hurriedly removed themselves from Mary¡¯s domain whilst Purple Murex and Blacksand moved slowly forward into the dungeon¡¯s domain.

    As they entered the small gap in the barrier reef they saw the temple that almost seemed to be floating in the centre of the lagoon. Purple Murex stopped in wonder at the sight whilst Blacksand stopped at the sight of Trisha riding a dolphin heading straight for them.

    ¡°Hey Purple, when do you think our shy little Trish befriended that dolphin.¡±

    Purple Murex snapped out of his trance, blinked in surprise and declined to answer as the dolphin coasted to a stop in front of them.

    ? Welcome to my home, why have you come? Beep guess I¡¯ll leave Trisha to deal with you so we don¡¯t beep each other off! ?

    Mary quickly grew bored and left the sprites to their discussions. The sprites soon retired to the Temple where they resumed their debate after a short interlude for exploration and prayer.

    * * *

    Mary for her part stopped to observe the man who had tried to harpoon her hollowing out a large tree trunk. ¡®Mmm... So you¡¯re making a canoe. ¡¯K, guess the rays won¡¯t cut it. Mmm... Lets see what can I do ¡¯bout things above the waves.¡¯

    Mary cut her connection with her avatar, dismissing it, and returned to her core.

    ¡®So what do I know, lots of fish, how to glide, much ¡¯bout flying fish and swordfish back on earth, bees an¡¯ other bugs with stings ... DNA ... Mmm ... Maybe, lessee...¡¯

    So once again Mary sank into a creative trance that lasted several days, much to the exasperated annoyance of her sprite, admixed with an amused ¡®told you so¡¯ from Lacenia.

    And it was at this point that Mary became exasperated with the system¡¯s dungeon creatures advancement system and started really tinkering. Helped, though she didn¡¯t realize it. by Ocidon¡¯s blessing.

    The sea sprite delegation finally left. Purple Murex and Blacksand remained behind to represent their tribe whilst the others returned home with all the news they had gained.

    * * *

    Once she was partially satisfied with her creations, Mary expanded her domain and began experimenting with her weaponised flying fish in the ocean beyond the Mangrove Isle, hoping to prevent the islanders from noticing anything.

    The sprites for their part wondered what she wanted with fish that could fly.

    When she was finally satisfied with her Mk.2 Fliers, Mary seeded two schools in her lagoon and one in her Oceanside domain. Then she endured Trisha¡¯s complaints and demands with remarkable ¨C for her ¨C patience. They started to hash out methods by which her sprite could break her out from her trances in case of emergencies.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C OCIDON * * *

    Ocidon hovered over his Temple in the town of Garonmouth. a solid, almost overbuilt edifice with multiple spires. He sank down entering his temple and appeared unto his high priest. Said individual felt nervous and uncertain, as was his usual habit when confronted by his God.

    ? Sanderson, I need a priest and staff for a new temple. You will release Danilus Oakborn to be the high priest of my new Temple of Ocidon on Sea. Appoint three acolytes to assist him. Be aware they will be spending some considerable time underwater ?

    A small memory stone shimmered into existence on Sanderson¡¯s desk.

    ? Give him that, it contains all the details Danilus Oakborn will need to get to his new posting. He will need funds. ?This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ? Gather your people, my faithful, to hear My Word before My Altar. I will give them my commandments in two hours. At noon. If any should be untrue ¨C I will smite them. ?

    High Priest Sanderson the Wise rose from his desk and startled his capable assistant by coming to him rather than summoning him as was his custom. The high priest¡¯s orders galvanised him, and as soon as Sanderson returned to his office, runners were being dispatched in all directions to summon the faithful. And further, a messenger has been sent to summon Danilus Oakborn for an urgent conference with Sanderson the Wise.

    Danilus sighed with resignation when the messenger informed him of his urgent and immediate appointment with his high priest. He was tired and needed a rest. The news that Their God was going to address the faithful at noon, along with the advance notice that Ocidon would smite any he deemed treacherous elated him. Very few had ever actually heard Ocidon speak.

    After his meeting with the high priest Danilus was in equal parts excited and worried. A quiet, very remote posting meant a quiet peaceful time ¨C he was all in favour of that ¨C the temple had been consecrated by Ocidon himself ¨C good ¨C it had been built by a dungeon that had rejected Azurea and allied with Ocidon ¨C he could foresee trouble to come, and that was far less pleasing.

    Sanderson had not been impressed on learning how remote the new temple was, but orders were orders. At least diverting one of the temple¡¯s ships wouldn¡¯t cost too much.

    Noon found the main hall of the temple full ¨C the statue of Ocidon shimmered and was replaced by the manifestation of the God ¨C It looked remarkably similar to Mary¡¯s statues. Ocidon looked down on his faithful and filled them with hope, and healed those that needed healing. The two men present that he knew were not his, he killed.

    ? My children, I am pleased with you. Know that I will be growing my seas, not soon, possibly not in your lifetimes, but it is now inevitable. Know too that I am ordering you to be wary of the followers of Azurea and to grant them no information about me and mine. ?

    With a final blessing Ocidon left, leaving a greatly modified statue presiding over the Altar.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C HELL¡¯S MOUTH & HEL-ARLIZZY * * *

    The as yet unnamed dungeon core was busy reclaiming and repairing his former dungeon with the help of his wraith. His heart room was the first location to be repaired. A squad of armed and armoured skeletons supported by spellcasting imps were set to guard his core.

    The core was unhappy. He regarded his guardians and he knew they were weak. They were the best he could do, but he somehow knew he used to be able to do better. Much better.

    Arbogar knew they were doing things in reverse but as long as there was a clear passage to the outside world they should be alright.

    At Arbogar¡¯s urging, his core had already spawned a couple of wisps. The fortuitous slaying of the would be companion had provided them with a useful template. And now those two wisps had been sent out of the dungeon to lure in fresh victims.

    ? What are you DOING ANS 48! Why did you kill that wisp I sent you? What¡¯s with all these Demons and Undead? You little BITCH! Why are you treating me like this after all I¡¯ve done for you? ?

    The dungeon core of Hell¡¯s Mouth was astounded. He instinctively knew that this angry being was Azurea, goddess of dungeons. But he had no idea why was she so angry, nor did he know why she was calling him a female dog. He was sure he was male, and he didn¡¯t think his name was, or ever had been ANS 48.

    Arbogar and the dungeon core contemplated one another in the silence after the blue haired goddess had left.

    ? What is going on Arbogar? Why did Azurea call me ANS 48. That isn¡¯t my name is it? ?

    ¡°I don¡¯t know Massster,¡± offered the wraith. ¡°You had no name. Everyone called you Hell¡¯sss Mouth.¡±

    ? So my name is Hell¡¯s Mouth. I like that. But what are we going to do? ?

    After much thought and discussion Arbogar and Hell¡¯s Mouth had decided to approach Hel-Arlizzy, who Arbogar remembered was the God of Dungeons back in the day before the New Gods arrived on the scene, bursting with impractical ideas and disdain for the old ways. They enacted the all but forgotten ritual that had been used in times of yore and waited hopefully for a response.

    * * *

    Hel-Arlizzy stirred and woke from his slumbers, he scratched his head with the tip of his tail and looked down on the world, surprised someone had called on him. He decided that whatever it was it didn¡¯t look urgent, so he sought out old friends and sounded out his colleagues amongst the Old Gods ¨C those that were awake at least.

    Surprisingly it turned out that old Ocidon had the answers he needed. After acceding to his modest demands ¨C he was no longer god of dungeons after all ¨C he learned all Ocidon knew and met Mary Silvestre, a truly foul mouthed young dungeon judging by all the beeps, and learned all she knew. He dutifully admired his brother¡¯s new temple, rather too ostentatious for his taste, which ran more to majestic caverns, and left to answer the summons with the desire to cause that thieving bitch Azurea grief.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C THE GODS REALM * * *

    Azurea materialized in the ¡°workroom¡± of the new gods. It certainly didn¡¯t look like any other workroom in existence. It had gilded walls covered with erotic art, deep plush carpets, and scattered leather covered couches, recliners and chairs among numerous carved and gilded end tables.

    As soon as she arrived a scantily clad servant hurried to offer her a tray loaded with drinks and delicacies. Azurea graciously selected a strong drink and some heavily sugared snacks. The servant recognizing the signs that Azurea¡¯s temper was uncertain scurried away gratefully.

    ¡°Welcome dear,¡± said Mirabelarque as xe chewed on the squirming locust xe held in one hand.

    Azurea acknowledged the other deities present before asking, ¡°Well Mirabelarque, did you discover anything?¡±

    ¡°Nothing any of us wants to hear. Apparently your fugitive has settled down, managed to recruit one of those interfering old fudy dudies as a sponsor and they were able to game the system into severing ties with you.¡±

    ¡°Ooo, lost something important dear?¡± interjected Delminia maliciously.

    ¡°Sounds like someone swiped one her dungeons,¡± gleefully added Feltax.

    ¡°I still have one hundred new dungeons!¡± snapped Azurea fuming.

    ¡°Just that one of those is a resurrected local, and not one of the imports,¡± clarified Mirabelarque.

    Feltax snorted, ¡°You really should have selected our recruits dear, rather than just snatching the first hundred that caught your eye.¡±

    ¡°Fine! You can go and get the next lot then. That world felt horrible, I bet you won¡¯t want to wait to get home either,¡± whined Azurea.

    ¡°Not happening! You wanted dungeons, you got dungeons. You can recruit and abuse them to your shrivelled little heart¡¯s desire,¡± responded Feltax.

    ¡°ENOUGH!¡± bellowed Mirabelarque. ¡°So Azurea how does that affect our plans for Parthia?¡±

    ¡°Well Duregar won¡¯t be getting any new rivers until the next stage of our plan. We will have to get the locals to destroy the Hell¡¯s Mouth dungeon soon, so that when we seed his caves with a new core in twenty years time, the locals won¡¯t overreact. Shouldn¡¯t be difficult he¡¯s spawning demons and undead.¡±

    ¡°What are you doing about ANS 48?¡± asked Creevar.

    Azurea narrowed her eyes at him, ¡®how did he find out which one of my dungeons has gone AWOL?¡¯ ¡°Nothing, its memories were wiped, and it is nowhere important.¡±

 Chapter 4 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary watched as the harpoon guy launched his small outrigger canoe into her lagoon. She felt a certain degree of excitement and anticipation as she carefully manoeuvred one of her new schools of flying fish into position.

    Once everything was ready she triggered their attack. Her Mk.2 Flyers launched themselves into the air. But they all missed! They missed a standing target ¨C harpoon guy didn¡¯t even need to dodge!

    ¡®They missed! All of them! Why! What went wrong? Mary asked herself. Well at least harpoon guy seemed unnerved. Mary watched in irritation as he turned his canoe and paddled back to the shore. ¡® Well it kind of worked,¡¯ she consoled herself.

    Mary returned her full attention to her Mk.2s and started to examine them once again. She was jerked out of her contemplation by her exasperated sprite.

    ? Not now Mary! You need to be ready to welcome the priests, they will need somewhere to live and Purple Murex and Blacksand would also appreciate somewhere comfortable. ?

    ? Um sorry, but the Mk.2s failed and... ?

    ? What do you mean failed? They flew! Fish have never flown before, they¡¯re great, ? enthused Trisha.

    Mary sulked for a while then felt ashamed of herself; she hadn¡¯t even made a home for Trisha yet. Now what kind of a home would a Sea Sprite want ... mmm, best ask them.

    ? Trish, what does a Sea Sprite want in a home? ?

    ? Somewhere secure with an alternate entrance so as to prevent being trapped, a dry spot for storing things would be nice. ?

    ? ¡®K then. Different homes or shared with separate chambers? ?

    * * *

    Mary decided against using the mangrove island, it was just too wide for her ideas. Instead she selected the smallest island for her experiment, it was totally deserted and only had a handful of palm trees.

    ¡®Palm trees, wonder if I can make a breadfruit... oops concentrate girl... sprite homes first!¡¯

    She found that making caves was easy, dungeons seemed naturally inclined to underground development. After thinking about that for a bit she decided that it was logical, after all dungeons and underground kind of went together like ham and eggs. Beep why was she constantly thinking of food!

    It didn¡¯t take long before she had a small complex of sprite sized caves running under the island. The rooms and caverns were linked by small tunnels to both sides of the island, allowing access from the ocean or lagoon.

    There was a central meeting room, with three smaller rooms opening onto a corridor leading off from it, and one small chamber above the waterline ¨C only possible due to how small sprites were ¨C supplied by a small ventilation tube that exited under the roots of one of the palm trees.

    The sprites were appreciative, more so when Mary figured out how to fuse sand into glass and was able to direct some light into their home.

    Another few weeks went by, Mary got to know the, or rather, what she was coming to think of as her sprites. The islanders marvelled at the flying fish, which their elders labelled unnatural.

    * * *

    Things were not as easy when it came to ¡®homes for the priests¡¯. Well it could have been, but her sense of aesthetics when it came to her domain wouldn¡¯t accept the easy answers. She recalled so many possible examples from back on Earth, so many possibilities. With her new home being so primitive she reckoned defence would be important. She ended up by settling for a central courtyard design, with added crenellations. Just how big should she make it though?

    ? Four clergy, one with family, plus five families with children, they¡¯ll need a schoolroom, a guardroom and an armoury. ?A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡®Huh... ¡®K one of the bigger designs then.¡¯

    She decided to create her new architectural masterpiece at the south end of Mangrove Island, she absorbed part of the island and created the building underwater. She wanted to hide it from the natives until the people it was destined for arrived. She already knew how to raise a building above the waves. Not being in a hurry, she worked in fits and starts.

    Mary enjoyed watching the sprites as they settled in their new home. She made another unsuccessful stab at creating a breadfruit tree. And she continued studying her Mk.2s.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C GARONMOUTH * * *

    Sanderson the Wise was not pleased. One of the men killed by his god had been the captain of the Star of Ocidon. And the Star was the ship he had intended to use to transport Danilus and his staff to the ass end of beyond. Now he had to appoint a new captain and vet the crew.

    ¡®Let me see, I need three acolytes capable of operating underwater, well most of us can, but these will need to.

    ¡®Bertina, possibly though considering her idea of entertainment her presence will be greatly missed.¡¯ Sanderson smiled to himself, he chuckled. ¡®Yes Bertina will do. Zorglub? No, with all his hair raising ideas I¡¯d best keep him close by. Faaron? Yes why not. No bars out there for him to start brawls in. I¡¯ll bail him out of the guardhouse one more time and ship him out. Doxser? No we always need archivists. Sirvanus maybe? Yes that will work. Right that¡¯s three.¡¯

    Sanderson sat back in his chair and played with his pendant. ¡®Best send along a couple of guards as well, and a few servants to look after them.¡¯

    * * *

    High Priest Sanderson gave the appropriate orders to his deputy. On being informed of the High Priest¡¯s decision the head of the temple guards chose four of his guards, two husband and wife pairings. He didn¡¯t have much difficulty persuading Sanderson that this was a good idea.

    When informed of the size of the party being sent to man the new temple the temple¡¯s major-domo upped the contingent of servants from four to six and added a teacher for the children.

    There was a fair sized crowd at the temple dock between those who were leaving and the well wishers who had come to see them off. Faaron was the last to arrive, he was being escorted by two members of the watch. The watch was ecstatic to see the last of Faaron. They had even delayed briefly at the local bathhouse in consideration for his fellow travellers.

    They sailed on the tide, the new captain and mate of the Star of Ocidon took things in their stride, they had both been at the temple and seen and heard Ocidon speak. They were very proud to be able to contribute to their god¡¯s plans.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C HELL¡¯S MOUTH * * *

    Hel-Arlizzy manifested himself in Hell¡¯s Mouth¡¯s heart chamber. Arbogar bowed respectfully, ¡°My lord God, be welcome to Hell¡¯s Mouth Dungeon.¡±

    ? Why did you summon me? ?

    ¡°My Lord, we had the displeasure of a visit from Azurea, she seemed both irrationally angry and incoherent. We felt that she was hostile to us, a danger to us. We seek to resume old loyalties, for however many times we went against your desires you were never actively hostile to my dungeon.¡±

    ? I am unable to give you much in the way of help, I have been greatly diminished of late. ?

    ¡°My lord, any help would be welcome, we fear Azurea will work against us regardless.¡±

    ? I advise you to strengthen yourselves while you can, and to delay a breach with the ¡®blue haired cow¡¯ as a free dungeon I recently met calls her. Then ... ?

    And Hel-Arlizzy explained exactly how Hell¡¯s Mouth could sever ties with Azurea goddess of Dungeons and resume ties with him.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary woke and blinked at the ceiling of her room, things had been weird ever since the vacation on Fiji. Mama had taken her and Flip to meet her sister, their auntie Vera.

    She had never empathised much with other people, but now she had to think things through extra carefully, ¡¯cause she just couldn¡¯t make herself care for most people.

    She stared at the ceiling, ¡®why do I feel as if it looks wrong? And how come I¡¯m always deamin¡¯ an¡¯ thinkin¡¯ ¡¯bout fish, crabs an¡¯ other sea creatures. An¡¯ how the beep do I knew so much ¡¯bout how they¡¯re put together, how they ¨C work!¡¯

    Mary was still a bit spaced out when she ate breakfast; she kissed her mama and headed off to catch the bus for school. She took one of the front seats as usual and endured the company of her fellow students. School went slowly. During Maths she had an epiphany, it all seemed to fall into place. She sat there staring at the board with her mouth half open. Then she answered almost without thinking, even the trick question her exasperated teacher threw in. She blinked away the irritating blue screen that was telling her she had ranked up in maths and missed the look of speculation on her teacher¡¯s face.

    She was heading for lunch when she saw Mr Kanuha her biology teacher, and on a whim she hurried her steps. Once she caught him she started asking questions and adding her ¨C observations? And theories. She didn¡¯t even notice when Dr Andrews the head of the school¡¯s biology department joined them. The result was a missed lunch, and more questions.

    That afternoon when she got home she was surprised to see her mama waiting for her. Her mama beamed at her with pride and said, ¡°I¡¯m so proud of you Mary. Dr Andrews phoned me this afternoon. He wants to meet us tomorrow. He says you might qualify for a course of advanced study in marine biology, well biology with a specialisation in marine biology. Why haven¡¯t you told me you¡¯ve been studying up on fish? I thought your interest started with them on your rod and ended with them on the barbie.¡±

    ¡°Um, well mama, I ¨C it seems to have been sneakin¡¯ up on me recently.¡±

 Chapter 5 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C BLUE LAGOON * * *

    Trisha was getting increasingly worried. Mary still hadn¡¯t created a safe location for her dungeon core. She had, after some nagging created a mid-sized sandy-floored underwater cavern near one of the uninhabited islands. And it had a second smaller cavern leading off from it. However she point blank refused to move her core there, where it could be guarded. Now she¡¯d set a diamond in the far wall of that second cave, and she¡¯d run one of her strange glass tubes behind it to make it glow, and she had added an enchantment to the end of the tube. It made a fair imitation of a core, but it didn¡¯t solve the problem that her core was still just sitting half-hidden by the sand of the floor of the lagoon.

    Trisha then decided to see if Purple Murex and Blacksand could help her. She showed them the undersea caves and explained her problem.

    ¡°It might not be ideal Trisha, but your typical adventurers are more likely to find this decoy, than the core itself,¡± explained Purple Murex.

    ¡°Yes, but they¡¯ll never believe a dungeon capable of creating that temple would only have two barely defended caves as her dungeon,¡± objected Blacksand. ¡°You¡¯ll have to persuade her to create some kind of a standard dungeon, preferably of at least three levels preferably four.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s taken all my time to get her to make this!¡± Trisha almost wailed.

    ¡°There are a couple of spells and tricks we could use to improve that decoy,¡± mused Purple Murex. ¡°I think you¡¯re going about persuading Mary wrongly. You need to present it as a challenge, to make something beautiful and impressive. I don¡¯t know how you¡¯d go about getting her to defend the place though.¡±

    Trisha blinked, deep in thought, ¡°maybe, some monsters that fit in with the decorations, to keep out the unappreciative ... mmm ... might work. I¡¯ll try it when she¡¯s finished with that house or whatever it is that she¡¯s making.¡±

    ¡°A castle, that¡¯s what it is,¡± stated Blacksand.

    * * *

    The Star of Ocidon meandered peacefully on its way. There had been one minor incident, but the pirates had veered off when they spotted four clerics, one in the robes of a high priest. The modified trade route they were creating was proving profitable. The sailors had grown fond of Faaron, and more than one dockside tavern got redecorated in the process.

    Finally almost two months after they started their journey their destination hove into view over the horizon. The atoll didn¡¯t look very promising; as they approached the atoll, they were hailed by a black haired sea sprite, who asked the captain if he was fetching the priests for the new temple. On being reassured they spotted a second sprite race off back to the island whilst the first asked if he could come aboard.

    Blacksand was soon advising the captain that he should approach around the southern end of the Mangrove Island where a suitable dock was located.

    * * *

    An excited Trisha, raced to tell Mary. When she reached her dungeon¡¯s core she found Mary in a world of her own. ¡°Not again! Mary, MARY! Pay attention, the fish can wait. Come on snap out of it! The priests are here! Mary, c¡¯mon it¡¯s time to show off your new building.¡±

    ? Wha... Oh hi Trish, wassup? ?

    ¡°Come on Mary, priests, fortress, dock!¡± interjected an exasperated Trisha.

    Mary inspected her domain and noted the approaching ship. She started modifying things using the mana she had set aside for the purpose. First she opened the sea channel through the reef, or rather finished opening the channel, then she raised the dock and pier in the shelter of the island. Finally she carefully built up the land under what she fondly considered a fortified manor house, and what everyone else who saw it, considered a small but formidable castle.

    As she examined her work she thought, ¡®Huh, why not, can use the mana to make a bridge rather than fill in the island up to the house, yeah, I¡¯ll do that, mustn¡¯t forget to waterproof mind.¡¯

    Having changed her plans slightly, Mary didn¡¯t fill in the gaps between the mansion and Mangrove Island. Instead she smoothed the slopes and turned the gap into a moat. Finally she added an airy looking stone bridge to connect the front ¨C and only ¨C gate to the island.

    * * *

    On the Star of Ocidon, the captain was feeling somewhat dubious. Sea sprites didn¡¯t have the best of reputations. They were well known as tricksters, even if not usually truly malicious ones. So after consulting with Danilus Oakborn he decided to follow the sprite¡¯s directions, although he did significantly shorten sail. As they approached the gap between islands, there did indeed appear to be a channel. The new temple came into sight, it seemed to be floating in the middle of the lagoon.

    Danilus had eyes for little else, his temple seemed to be elegant and simple, and it shone whitely in the bright afternoon sun. He couldn¡¯t wait to visit it. He almost didn¡¯t see the small castle rising from the waves.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening, how is that castle...¡± exclaimed the Captain.

    ¡°That¡¯s your new home,¡± explained Blacksand. ¡°Mary made it, and she has been keeping it hidden to avoid problems with the locals.¡±

    On hearing this the guards looked on approvingly, a fair sized castle with five meter tall crenulated walls, surrounded by a nice little moat, not to mention the eight meter tall tower sticking out of the seaward corner, positioned so as to allow the defenders to sweep the seaward walls with missile fire.

    The children for their part found the flying fish fascinating and badgered their parents and teacher with questions they were unable to answer.

    The tiny port was well laid out and would be able to accommodate three ships easily, far more room than was needed, the captain eyed the line of reefs enclosing it preventing ships from entering the lagoon itself with regret. His crew eyed the location with disfavour, no bars or taverns, no entertainment. Feelings shared to some extent by the new residents.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    The guards on the other hand were impressed, the only way to approach the castle was an open bridge, the gate was one solid piece of wood enchanted to resist fire, it led to a short tunnel with a ceiling liberally equipped with murder holes, and that could be closed at the other end by a similar door. And the ballista on the tower was a treat. They tried the giant crossbow and were impressed by its range, penetration and accuracy.

    The servants were also pleasantly surprised, running water, privies that emptied themselves at the touch of a lever, large comfortable rooms. Now all they needed was somewhere to go for entertainment.

    Danilus and his acolytes placed their things in their rooms, then accompanied by two of the older children, dove into the lagoon and swam out to the temple. They climbed the partially submerged stairway at the front and entered their new temple. The decorations incited admiration and the statues representing Ocidon were admired, all present remembering the recent visitation.

    Danilus held a service to his limited congregation of acolytes, two young teenagers, three sprites and a Dolphin that looked on with interest while resting on the majestic stairway leading to the platform.

    * * *

    That evening in the castle Danilus Oakborn introduced his people to Trisha, explaining the unusual circumstances surrounding their new home and temple. ¡°A few of you have met Mary Silvestre today, she uses an avatar in the form of a Dolphin.¡±

    After some discussion, everyone seemed satisfied: the only thing most of those present agreed would be needed, was a smithy of some sort. Trisha interrupted at this point and promised to ask Mary to create one after consulting with their smith.

    Some of the locals had come round earlier and the only person who had been able to speak their language was one of the sailors. The captain of the Star of Ocidon had been willing to cede his crewman¡¯s services far more readily than the man in question had been willing to offer them. Finally they had agreed that he would be allowed to leave on the next ship to call, and would receive a bonus for staying and teaching the language.

    * * *

    Next day Trisha tackled Mary, she agreed to add a smithy, as she really didn¡¯t want a bunch of humans altering her project almost as soon as it had been delivered. Then came the dungeon project. How no one would believe that two primitive caves was all such an architecturally gifted dungeon would be capable off. How she would be able to use it to showcase her art, and design guardians to match.

    ? ¡¯K I¡¯m being snowed here. But I can see you kinda have a beep point here. I¡¯ll think on it ¨C after I fix those beep Mk.2s. ?

    Trish very wisely decided to leave it at that.

    So Mary with Trisha and the blacksmith¡¯s help included a small smithy in her fortified mansion. She obtained room by enlarging the whole thing slightly. Once everyone was happy with the addition Mary disappeared to play with her fish.

    The Mk.3s lost their offensive capability, grew slightly larger and became faster. and capable of flying higher and further. Satisfied with their performance she went on to develop her Mk.4s.

    She became so engrossed in her project that she didn¡¯t notice Ocidon collecting her completed Mk.3s for distribution in his warmer oceans and seas, where they could thrive, after he stripped them of their dungeon taint.

    The Mk.4s were differentiated by sex, the females were basically standard Mk.3s, the males regained the Mk.2s discardable venom filled syringe on their noses, and their eyes were repositioned to allow better forward vision. She then re-spawned her three schools of flying fish. This time with a ratio of one to four males to females.

    Only then, after a couple of weeks of enjoyable tinkering, and learning all about DNA, and how to manipulate it, did she ¨C reluctantly ¨C return her attention to the decoy dungeon.

    She was very happy to be interrupted at this point by Trisha, who wanted her to assume her dolphin avatar to meet Danilus Oakborn. Happy to forget about the boring caves, and curiosity about the new inhabitants of her domain got the best of her, so she agreed.

    The meeting ended up by including most of the people present on the archipelago. Trish persuaded her to forgive the harpoon guy. The locals, it seemed, were mostly moving to Mangrove Island, where their new market for fish and agricultural produce was located. Mary took the opportunity to suggested they try her new breadfruit trees, and to let her know what they thought of them.

    Then she left rather abruptly as was her custom, to contemplate her new project. She did make a note to absorb the local¡¯s island into her domain once that became possible.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C HELL¡¯S MOUTH DUNGEON * * *

    Hell¡¯s Mouth and Arbogar considered their situation. What they had just learned was worrying, so they checked their memories, and decided on a plan to hopefully mitigate or delay Azurea¡¯s intervention.

    Hell¡¯s Mouth made use of some of the divine mana that Azurea had carelessly infused him with. He formed a small part of his domain into a long thin corridor. Then Arbogar, escorted by most of their guardians, used it to carry his partner''s core to the first level of his old dungeon.

    Once there Hell¡¯s Mouth spent a few weeks claiming and repairing the whole thing whilst Arborgar went hunting with the aid an undead knight and his two sprites. The knight was provided with both a monster core and a name.

    He modified the entrance to resemble a large, mostly open cavern containing a deep pool of clear water, and it was covered in lush cave grass. Luckily the underground spring they remembered from centuries past was still present, and Hell¡¯s Mouth was able to divert it to fill the pool instead of wasting itself on the underground stream that soon petered out deep under the desert.

    Hell¡¯s Mouth then filled the remaining six caves of his old and rather simple first level with the fruits of the hunt. Snakes, scorpions, centipedes and jackals.

    Hell¡¯s Mouth found them all rather insipid, but they hoped it would keep, how had Hel-Arlizzy put it, oh yes that blue haired cow off their backs for a while.

    Hell¡¯s Mouth and Arbogar decided that whilst the new first level was settling in nicely, it needed something more. So, somewhat reluctantly they refurbished their old second level and continued the theme. They were happy to incorporate the bonus conferred on them by the arrival of some bats. Hell¡¯s Mouth discovered to his surprise that he had a soft spot for the nocturnal insectivores.

    Once satisfied with their labours, Hell¡¯s Mouth and Arbogar had no idea as to what to do next. They had absolutely no desire to sit in these two initial levels of their dungeon. They were well aware that as with all new dungeons, its defences were grossly inadequate, and that their survival would depend on the good will of any adventurers. And neither Hell¡¯s Mouth nor Arbogar had any faith in the good will of adventurers. Of their cupidity and greed yes, their good will, no.

    They wracked their brains for a solution. Hell¡¯s Mouth finally agreed to go along with Arbogar¡¯s suggestion of using a forbidden necromantic ritual to create a subordinate dungeon core. They would sacrifice a suitable sapient being, gifting it with the first three levels of the old dungeon and sealing the link between the third and fourth level. They could then open a new unobtrusive entrance for Hell¡¯s Mouth at some distance from the current flamboyant entrance.

    Hell¡¯s Mouth didn¡¯t really like the idea, but it did allow him to retreat to his well guarded depths. A quick divination to Hel-Arlizzy generated a tentative acceptance, provided the victim agreed to the deal.

    This wasn¡¯t promising, neither Hell¡¯s Mouth nor Arbogar were the sort that inspired trust and warm feelings.

    ? What if I summon an Incubus, will a soul he collects be suitable? It should prefer being a dungeon than ending up in hell. That should count as voluntary shouldn¡¯t it? ? asked Hell¡¯s Mouth of Arbogar.

    ? ... Yes that should work. We must tell him to get us the soul of someone without either light or darkness affinities. Earth and water would be ideal, as that seems to be what Azurea was seeking. ? offered Arbogar.

 Chapter 6 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C BLUE LAGOON * * *

    Trisha watched Mary go and rolled her eyes in exasperation. She sighed and glanced apologetically at Danilus Oakborn. He, for his part, was unable to suppress a brief smile at the Sprite¡¯s evident discomfort.

    Trisha gathered herself and said, ¡°Danilus, I¡¯ve arranged for the harbour and channel to be monster free. Then too, the islands themselves are currently free of dungeon monsters, though I understand the feral pigs can be dangerous. The beaches of this island are safe as is an area of one hundred meters offshore. At my urging you have all been recognised by Mary, and our monsters won¡¯t hunt you, but if you step on one of her rays, well sorry, instinct will kick in.¡± Trisha glanced at the mangroves, ¡°I¡¯d suggest avoiding the mangroves, I know she¡¯s planning to do something with them, and when she does it might prove dangerous.¡±

    ¡°Can we fetch in more people, my guards are enthused by our new home, but they feel they need more guards to make it truly safe. Also I want to ask for a temple builder to inspect it. It¡¯s a perfect defensive building for exposed locations like this.¡±

    ¡°Trust me Danilus, if you put it that way, Mary will agree. She may have mostly lost interest in her fortified manor house,¡± Trisha nodded at the little castle, ¡°but she does like it when people admire her projects.¡±

    ¡°Well is there anything we can do for you, to thank you for all you¡¯ve done for us,¡± enquired Danilus.

    Trisha blinked thoughtfully, licked her lips and said, ¡°well I¡¯m not sure how ¨C safe ¨C it would be in the long run, but if you could get us some live sea creatures we haven¡¯t found so far, I¡¯m sure Mary would be delighted.¡± She paused, deep in thought, ¡°Don¡¯t bother with sharks, several have showed up but she hasn¡¯t paid them any attention, except to kill the one that seemed intent on settling in the lagoon.

    ¡°Oh yes, if you do see a shark, it won¡¯t belong to the dungeon, so count on it acting like a shark.¡±

    * * *

    Mary was putting the finishing touches on the little project she had been working on and off on for a month or so now. She hoped Trisha would like it. It was a small underwater folly made of toughened glass and coral, with three widely separated underground escape tunnels. It was furnished with elegant versions of the sprites¡¯ furniture, and it included an air filled suit of rooms.

    Then she forgot all about it, and set about creating her buried palace dungeon. The entrance was designed to look like the top room of a buried tower, with the roof just breaking the surface. The entrance itself was a half buried window, with a fan of sand allowing easy access to the floor of the circular room. Engraved on the walls would be the story of Rapunzel done as a manga.

    The dungeon proper would be accessed through a trapdoor located in the middle of the room. Stepping on it would be enough, as the wood was purposefully rotten, and would disintegrate if stepped on.

    This opening would lead to a set of four intact rooms. These rooms would be partially submerged at high tide and would bear the tale of the fable of the three little pigs. Also done as a manga. The partially collapsed end room would lead deeper into the fully submerged part of the dungeon.

    At this point she decided to rest and do something more interesting than digging holes. Mary rejoined the world to the sight of an exasperated Trisha. Thinking quickly, Mary decided to try and distract her.

    ? Hey Trish I¡¯ve something to show you, here, what do you think it¡¯s for you. ?

    And she made Trisha aware of the home she had created for her amongst the coral reefs in one of the more inaccessible of the passages between islands.

    Once Trisha had explored her new home, and shown it to Purple Murex and Blacksand, Mary diverted her again by asking the three to look over the beginning of the decoy dungeon, and asking what they thought of it so far and what monsters would be appropriate.

    The murals had the unexpected consequence of making the place very popular with the children, all of who could swim like fishes, and were having the time of their lives.

    * * *

    One month after the arrival of the temple folk a small temple trading ship called by to see how things were progressing. After collecting and delivering mail, they left with tall tales, several letters, five large pearls and one very happy sailor. They left supplies, mostly unneeded, paper and ink, desperately needed, and news and gossip about the rest of the world.

    Three weeks later a small two masted pirate ship came calling. Trisha was surprised to find Mary already aware of the threat. This worried her as she realized that her dungeon was keeping scouts well outside her domain. And keeping secrets from her.

    ? Hmph, you can thank Ocidon for that Trish. He appropriated my Mk.3s. But I can still use them. I was able to figure out how to link to them, it was kinda easy. I think he did that on purpose. ?

    That was the only explanation Trisha received from her dungeon partner.

    * * *

    The Pirates circled the archipelago seeking entrance, they dropped a raiding party in a longboat offshore from the island the locals had originally inhabited ¨C the locals had long since decamped to the much more comfortable homes Mary had created on Mangrove Island ¨C before continuing around the archipelago intending to force the passage into the lagoon. The landing party was probably intended as a diversion.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    Mary directed two of her modified lampreys to attack the ship. The lampreys attached themselves to the bottom of the pirate¡¯s brig, and started drilling their way through the hull.

    Mary urged one of the schools of her of flying fish from the lagoon to join the school that had been patrolling the sea outside the lagoon. Or at least that part of the ocean that had already been claimed by Blue Lagoon.

    The lampreys that Mary had been modified to eat coral had no difficulty boring holes in the hull. It didn¡¯t take long before the ship began to settle. The pirates lining the rails intent on the coming action didn¡¯t notice.

    The raiding party who had hauled their longboat across the island and launched it into the lagoon did notice the lamprey that commenced work once they got about forty meters offshore. It was very hard to miss a ten-centimetre diameter hole being created by saw like rotating teeth in the bottom of an open rowing boat.

    * * *

    The guards in the castle raced up their tower and prepared to use their baby. The locals were ushered into the safety of the castle, issued weapons and directed to the ramparts.

    Harpoon guy, Jaasoon Sunhigh assured Rhondaa, the guard in charge of the seaward wall that they wouldn¡¯t be needed as the spirit dolphin would handle things. After all if her lampreys could eat coral they could eat ships.

    Rhondaa cheered when the ballista crew killed the helmsman with their first shot, then watched wide eyed as the lagoons flying fish rose up on each side of the ship, most flying over the ship but some striking the pirates.

    Jaasoon laughed, ¡°Die scum, no more will you prey on us.¡±

    Mary was ecstatic. Her Mk.4s were a success. And the weak water magic she had given the males was enough to allow the majority of them to pull themselves back into the sea after depositing their poison laden stings in their targets. Said targets that were now convulsing in their death throes. A second wave allowed the remaining males with unused stings to deliver their gifts of death. Yes! Even some of her fish who had been stranded on the deck had managed to parlay their water attachment to get back into the sea.

    The ship was soon awash and Mary sent her stingrays to finish the job. From what she knew of Earth history, pirates were scum and she had no interest in keeping any of them alive.

    She did find two grossly mistreated prisoners that had apparently been kept for the pirates¡¯ entertainment, and once one of her lampreys had cut the wooden bar keeping their cage shut, they had been able to escape with no further help from her.

    In the Lagoon it was worse for the pirates. The Mk.4s had wiped out the longboat¡¯s crew easily, as they had not been paying attention to anything except plugging holes and getting back to shore.

    ¡®Pity, but it won¡¯t work as well next time, and armour will definitely be a problem... Hmm yes that might work... anyway I seem to have lots of mana so lets get claiming, a bigger domain means more depth, more depth means a better defence.¡¯

    * * *

    Danilus Oakborn watched while the former inhabitants of the island held a celebration, led by their chief Jaasoon Sunhigh, for the destruction of the pirates and for the return of one of their own captured some time back. Thankfully Ocidon had been merciful, and the two former captives had been healed body and soul. Also all the former inhabitants of the islands had converted, though they still venerated the spirit dolphin. Ocidon made him and his acolytes aware that he found this acceptable, and amusing.

    Thankfully this dungeon seemed to want to cooperate with Ocidon, and thus by extension his priests and priestesses. Mary Silvestre was ¨C unconventional ¨C her sprite seemed to despair of the lack of an actual dungeon. But finding one small gem in an oval lagoon ten kilometres by three, would be virtually impossible, unless it was in a well-defined dungeon.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    The meeting with Dr Andrews and the members of the biology department had been surprising. She had trotted out several of the things she had been learning in her dreams. She had been able to temper some of her thoughts with things she had read in the library.

    She had had a discussion, almost an argument with Dr Andrews regarding stingrays. She vehemently disagreed with one of the textbooks that had a couple of paragraphs about them.

    After what her mama told her later was a nearly an hour of discussion Dr Andrews had burst out laughing. He admitted that the textbook was dated and the part containing the reference to stingrays was known to be partially incorrect.

    Mary was not amused to realise that they were being taught out of books that were known to be incorrect. Though she had to admit to herself that she wouldn¡¯t have cared even a month ago. The discrepancies were small, if crucial.

    And now she had more homework. She had a dissertation to write on Stingrays.

    Mary was surprised at how proud mama was of her after their meeting with Dr Andrews. So she was now enrolled in an advanced study biology course in her High School with access to some marine biology material and if things went well the possibility of mentoring by someone from the university.

    She blinked at the bright sun, yeah, there was time to head out and do some fishing.

    It was getting dark when she got back home lugging her fishing tackle and a cooler with the best of her catch. She saw to cleaning and storing her catch and gear before she headed back to her room for a shower and change of clothes.

    Then wanting to please her mama she fired up her computer and went online to check out the records she had access to. She decided that there really wasn¡¯t that much on flying fish and stingrays. Most of the data she could access seemed to lack relevant details, especially regarding how stingrays generated and stored their poison.

    So she racked her brain and blinked thoughtfully as details streamed into her consciousness. When she concentrated on interesting details, there seemed to be a small delay before the facts streamed in.

    Mary jerked herself out of her fugue after the third time her mama yelled at her about dinner. She blinked at the screen at the reams of text and tables. She saved her work and closed down her computer before following her mama down to dinner.

    Before going to bed she revised her paper and printed it off. The following day she handed it to a surprised Dr Andrews.

    * * *

    Dr Andrews ploughed through the mass of ill organised data that showed a surprising mind. He wondered how in hell he had missed the signs that must have been there before being confronted by this mass of scholarship and supposition. He could see the potential for years of work in this paper.

    He returned it to Mary with numerous suggestions on how to improve her dissertation. He also suggested she add some potential experiments and suggestion on how to test her theories.

    * * *

    After another night of strange dreams Mary woke with a few more ideas. She revised her paper, completely reorganising and expanding it. It took her the rest of the week, and her mother had to drag her down to dinner every night.

    Somewhat reluctantly, that Friday morning Mary handed a folder containing her expanded dissertation to Dr Andrews.

    Now, a week later the mentoring was a fact and mama was bursting with pride.

    And yeah, it was time to head out and do some more fishing.

 Chapter 7 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary found it impossible to resist the kids, especially the ones who assured her that they were not demanding. They were only asking.

    So she set to and created another level of the buried palace dungeon, more rooms, all of them submerged and dimly illuminated via her trick with mirrors and glass columns. She felt that two tales were necessary to do justice to this floor, so Cinderella ¨C but with fur slippers ¨C and Sleeping Beauty.

    As for treasures, well she hid a few rings of water breathing in several locations.

    And much joy ensued amongst the kids, and to a lesser extent to their tutor, at their increased desire to learn to read, and how to cast and use spells for breathing and moving underwater. Mary found herself talking rather more than she really wanted. Trisha seemed undecided between consternation at the state of her grand plan, and amusement at how children could harry a dungeon.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C ALTOR SEASWEPT * * *

    The mereman Altor Seaswept, looked at his good friend Lacenia the wild rover. He had caught her at her customary games. He had distracted her and enabled the poor bewildered sailors in the big scow of a merchantman to escape her attentions and continue on their way.

    ¡°Ah Poo! Altor why did you stop me? Now they are headed towards the murderous scum that sail out of Port Salvage.¡±

    Altor froze for an instant in distress; he gazed in the direction of the merchantman. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just warn them Lacenia?¡±

    ¡°What fun would that be Altor? And anyway, they almost certainly wouldn¡¯t believe me,¡± pointed out Lacenia.

    ¡°I¡¯d best go warn them. They¡¯ll believe me. Where are the pirates?¡±

    Some time later, warning delivered, the two friends settled down in a comfortable cave and shared a snack consisting of some oysters.

    ¡°So Altor, have you seen your god¡¯s latest temple?¡±

    Altor raised one eyebrow in dubious enquiry. ¡°What new temple?¡±

    ¡°The one built by the new dungeon, and consecrated by the god himself,¡± Lacenia offered. ¡°It is really quite pretty, it sits in the middle of the lagoon.¡±

    Altor settled back against the wall of the cave and studied his friend. ¡°You make it sound interesting, but what about the dungeon? That sounds rather dangerous.¡±

    ¡°Mary, that is, Blue Lagoon is strange. As a priest or worshiper you¡¯d be safe. And anyway your friend Blacksand is living there.¡±

    * * *

    Altor Seaswept, who was also an itinerant priest of Ocidon finally succumbed to his curiosity regarding the dungeon built temple. He collected some gifts that he believed would interest a sea dungeon, and headed off to see this marvel.

    He found the seas close to the dungeon to be home to a great number of those new flying fish. When he reached the edge of the dungeon¡¯s domain, he found himself still well out to sea. He cautiously circled the circular domain and was impressed and intimidated by the area it covered. He concluded that this dungeon was clearly arrogant, and very sure of itself. It certainly wasn¡¯t hiding it¡¯s might.

    When he returned to his starting point, he found Blacksand the voyager awaiting him. He felt a chill run down his back, this dungeon clearly had ways of keeping watch outside its domain.

    ¡°Be welcome to the Blue Lagoon Dungeon, home of the temple of Ocidon on Sea. Hey Altor nice to see you again,¡± Blacksand said with a grin.

    ¡°Is there is truly a temple here Blackie? This isn¡¯t another joke you sprites are trying to pull?¡±

    Blacksand attempted to look hurt, ¡°When have I ever lied to you?¡± he asked, then seeing the look in Altor¡¯s eye, hurriedly added, ¡°never mind, sorry, but this is real. The high priest is Danilus Oakborn.¡±

    ¡°So have you ceased your wandering ways and taken up dungeon sitting Blackie?¡± asked Altor with a grin.

    ¡°No I haven¡¯t. Trisha has that thankless task. Mary Silvestre is a very eccentric and annoying dungeon,¡± stated Blacksand with conviction. ¡°Anyway come along and meet Trisha, Mary and Danilus and his people.¡±

    ¡°Is Mary dangerous?¡±

    Blacksand interrupted, ¡°Depends, very if she doesn¡¯t like you. However if you are here as a priest or a friend, then you will probably be ignored, and will only be in danger if you do something stupid like kicking one of her rays. She has a tendency to lose herself in her interest of the moment and ignore everyone and everything.¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Blacksand chortled, ¡°Trish managed to get her to agree to make a regular dungeon, and now every kid on the islands is poking around it. Because of all the tall tales she¡¯s drawn on the walls. It is completely useless as a dungeon.¡±

    ¡°Why doesn¡¯t she just chase the kids away? She is a dungeon after all, isn¡¯t she?¡± enquired Altor.

    Blacksand snorted. ¡°Mary has a soft spot for kids. But don¡¯t let that fool you. She is a dungeon and ruthless with those she dislikes.¡±

    When they finally arrived at the island, Altor noted that it was guarded by an impressive little fortress. He also observed several people engaged in refloating a small brig.

    ¡°What happened here?¡± he asked of Blacksand.

    ¡°Pirates thought they had easy pickings. The garrison killed a couple while Mary sank their ship and killed the rest. She let Trisha know there were two prisoners on board and left it up to us ¨C and yes it is pretty isn¡¯t it?¡± Blacksand concluded when he saw his friend gaze upon the temple in the lagoon.

    * * * PARTHIA - BLUE LAGOON * * *

    Danilus Oakborn welcomed Altor Seaswept with open arms. A truly aquatic priest meant that he had a good chance of expanding the temple underwater, and making it into one of the very few temples capable of serving both congregations, the land based and the water based.

    Trisha and Blacksand were both surprised at how eager Mary was to assume her avatar and meet the new arrival. They hadn¡¯t realized that she had been seeking an excuse to get away from the children, and allowed her to put off her promise to tell them stories.

    Altor Seaswept was surprised by the dungeon¡¯s avatar. He had not expected a dolphin. He felt the need to plan his revenge on Danilus and Blacksand, he could see by the look they shared that they had intended to surprise him. At least it had been a nice surprise. A dolphin he could understand.

    Danilus grinned expansively, ¡°With Altor Seaswept we will have a priest who specializes in Ocidon¡¯s underseas folk. Do you think you could expand our temple so that they will have somewhere appropriate to worship?¡±

    Mary thought for a moment, it seemed to her that it would be more interesting than adding yet another floor to her fairy tale dungeon.

    ? Maybe ¨C I¡¯ll think ¡¯bout it. I have some ideas. ?

    ¡°You could use the area under the temple. It is half built already after all,¡± suggested Danilus.

    ? Nope. Not hidin¡¯ his temple. I¡¯ll think ¡¯bout it and consult with you before I build it. ?

    Both Altor and Danilus had to agree with this point once Mary stated it. The temple should be visible. Trisha sighed as she saw Mary disappearing again into one of her creative trances. Blacksand chuckled at his friend¡¯s sigh, earning himself a glare from Trisha.

    Altor quite unintentionally saved his friend from an irate Trisha. He produced his gift and offered it to Mary.

    ¡°I have a gift for you Mary.¡± He offered a largish open weave basket. ¡°Here is a Barracuda I found. I hope you can make use of it.¡±

    Mary examined the big toothy fish with interest.

    ? Thank you. I¡¯ll find her a home, somewhere where her eggs will be welcome. I¡¯ll soon have lots of barracuda, I¡¯m sure I can make use of them. ?

    Altor watched as the cage opened itself and the barracuda was whisked away, towards one of the barrier reefs.

    ? Hey, Blackie. Can you take your friend to those two caves with the fake core? Settle him in there. Tell me what he needs to be comfortable until we can get him somewhere better. ?

    * * *

    Three weeks later the second temple ship to visit Blue Lagoon made port. It fetched several more guards and a few craftsmen. Also present was the builder Danilus had requested.

    It left on schedule, with a few more pearls, and it left a fascinated builder, who was determined to go over everything Mary had created, with especial emphasis on features such as running water.

    The sea temple had been completed, Mary had created a large open circle of slender fluted columns rising from a sand swept marble base, carrying an elaborately decorated frieze surrounding a statue of Ocidon raised on a short glass column, seemingly hovering over his altar.

    To Trisha amused exasperation, Mary had been hit by inspiration and just created the new temple. It was located at the point that the stairs leading to the temple would have reached the sea floor, had they reached that far.

    Altor and Danilus were handed a fait accompli, but Mary did ask if they wanted any changes.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C HELL¡¯S MOUTH * * *

    The soul gem was ready, Hell¡¯s Mouth had located a nice sized brown tourmaline and enchanted it utilising a few fragments of his previous gem. Scraps that had been left over after Arbogar had managed to resurrect him. He had needed to use a miniscule ammount of his diminishing stock of Azurea¡¯s mana ¨C he had begrudged that, due to its extreme usefulness ¨C but it was done now. The fragments would imbue the gem with a dungeon¡¯s instincts.

    They had inscribed the summoning circle. Then they had both, both separately and together, inspected it almost microscopically. Hell¡¯s Mouth was painfully aware that despite having a big advantage when it came to demon summoning, the ritual he was attempting was technically beyond his current abilities. It was only due to his prior experience and the help offered by Arbogar that he was willing to risk this, that and the fact that an incubus was not that powerful as demons go. And anyway, they really had very little choice if they were to survive.

    At the conclusion of the ritual Zarnjdfjgmn appeared in the summoning circle, in a cloud of foul smelling sulphurous smoke, and immediately struck an alluring pose. As soon as he spotted his summoners he dropped the pose and tested the circle without much hope.

    ? I have a proposal for you Zarnjdfjgmn, I need a soul of a young woman totally devoid of dark or light affinity. She has to have some water and earth affinity. I propose letting you go hunt for a week, then you will return here with that specific soul, and turn it over to me, at the appropriate point in a ritual you will participate in. As a reward you may keep any other souls you cull. ?

    ¡°And if I don¡¯t agree...¡± hissed Zarnjdfjgmn theatrically.

    ? Then I will compel you and allow you no reward. ?

    ¡°Very well, I agree.¡±

    ? Zarnjdfjgmn you will return here with my soul seven days from now, at this hour. Now Go! ?

    The Incubus left in another cloud of smoke. Hell¡¯s Mouth once again scrutinised the summoning circle, they would need it for the banishing ritual.

    Once again Arbogar carried Hell¡¯s Mouth surrounded by their guardians. They traversed the long corridor until they arrived in the end room of the ¨C still ¨C second level of his dungeon. There they spent a meticulous two days setting up the ¨C modified ¨C dungeon creation necromantic ritual. Once satisfied they left a strong guard force, and Hell¡¯s Mouth and Arbogar withdrew once more to the comfort of their depths.

 Chapter 8 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C ADVENTURER¡¯S GUILD ¨C GARONMOUTH * * *

    Three weeks before the present

    Several important individuals were sitting around a large polished table in an imposing room. The walls were covered with assorted trophies, some of which were only impressive if their story was known. They were holding the Guild¡¯s monthly meeting.

    At the head of the table, sitting on an impressive example of the special chairs the dwarves had developed, for use in areas where the dominant species were over-tall, and in their eyes at least too spindly, was the guild master Sofos Ironfist. Sofos was an impressive looking dwarf, he had a long plaited white beard, and piercing grey eyes in a craggy face.

    Taron the Ravager, the grizzled veteran in charge of training and security was speaking, for once he had something of interest to report. ¡°There are stirrings amongst the gods, Hel-Arlizzy had awoken. His altar is accepting offerings, it shows every sign of being active. The old one seems to be challenging Azurea in a small way.

    ¡°Then there was all the fuss because Ocidon the Earthshaker had manifested in his temple, and spoken to his faithful.¡±

    Soros looked round the table and noted several sour looks, his officials to a being, were not happy with this sign that the long dormant gods were stirring once again. Conflict amongst the gods, however low key, was not good for business. It tended to incite the fanatics.

    ¡°Sarannas you will need to prepare yet another evaluation. It appears that the temple of Ocidon has access to a new dungeon,¡± grumbled Sofos.

    Sarannas sighed, the bloody things seemed to be popping out all over the place recently. This one was the fourth in their jurisdiction just this month. ¡°Right, I¡¯ll see to it. Can it wait until one of the other evaluation groups get back? We don¡¯t have any experienced evaluators around at the moment.¡±

    Sofos grimaced, ¡°Sorry no. The damn thing is way out to sea, we¡¯ve acquired a chart from the Star of Ocidon courtesy of Fingers Caracaa. The trip will take about three weeks, you know how our charter reads regarding evaluations. How about Torgan the Black? He certainly has the experience.¡±

    ¡°We used Torgan to kill two rogue dungeons. You know dungeons seem to sense things like that, it¡¯ll go all out trying to kill him and the evaluation team,¡± stated Sarannas.

    Sofos shrugged. ¡°Do your best Sarannas. There was nothing out there when we did our last annual scan. And that was only seven months ago. There is something there now. It¡¯s a young dungeon, shouldn¡¯t be too powerful.¡±

    ¡°Famous last words,¡± grumbled Sarannas.

    ¡°Just do it! Send Torgan,¡± ordered an exasperated Sofos. ¡°In the meantime I¡¯ll inform that pious idiot Sanderson the Wise that as per our charter, we¡¯re going to evaluate their dungeon.¡±

    ¡°This isn¡¯t a good idea Sofos, but you¡¯re the boss,¡± grumbled Saranas.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C NEAR BLUE LAGOON * * *

    Silverstreek the matriarch of the pod was hunting for somewhere suitable for her pod. The situation was becoming more urgent now that several of her sisters and friends had calves by their sides. And several of the other members of her pod were nearing their time.

    This didn¡¯t mean that they neglected play. They explored even as they leapt and danced through the waves.

    Then, very faintly in the distance, they detected a strange song. Curiosity won the day, and she led her pod towards the source of the song. They remaimed ready to break away and flee at the first sign of danger.

    Soon all the members of her pod could hear the stranger clearly. The voice was that of a young female. She seemed to be all alone. Silverstreak led her pod towards the stranger with greater confidence. Surely the lone female would welcome company, and if a solitary female could prosper, the chances were good that there¡¯d be safety for her young family.

    As they got closer to the islands they were heartened by the amount of fish they found. It would seem the young female had a rich territory.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Trisha found Mary playing in the lagoon; she was obviously delighted by something. Trisha watched her partner¡¯s dolphin avatar dancing through the calm blue waters of the lagoon with a certain degree of amused fond tolerance. ¡®I can¡¯t remember any tales of any other dungeon that was willing to just waste time playing,¡¯ she thought to herself in bemusement.

    ¡°What¡¯s the occasion Mary? Are you celebrating something in particular?¡± asked Trisha with a fond smile.

    ? Had a breakthrough Trish. I remembered somethi¡¯ Gerald Durrel wrote ¡¯bout one of his trips to South America. Electric eels. Can use the idea here. ?

    ¡°Um, what are electric eels? For that matter what¡¯s electric?¡±

    ? Electricity is ¨C erm ¨C lightning. ?

    Trisha watched her dungeon frolicking in their lagoon, and wondered yet again why her explanations so often just complicated things. Who was Gerald Durrel, what was South America? And what did eels have to do with lightning? She deciding to get to the bottom of this explanation later. She was tired of letting things go and getting surprised by the results. At least Mary did explain. If asked the right questions.

    But first she had to give her the bad news, ¡°Danilus has just heard from the high priest of Ocidon¡¯s temple in Garonmouth. Sanderson the Wise has learnt that the Adventurer¡¯s Guild is sending one of its teams to evaluate you ¨C us. The problem is it is a team they use to kill rogue dungeons.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Mary stilled and coasted to a stop facing Trish. Trish started to worry at the look in dolphin Mary¡¯s blue eyes.

    ? Let me see if I¡¯ve got this right, The beep Adventurers Guild, is sending a bunch of idiots led by a beep official dungeon killer, to beep evaluate me. So that means that ¡¯cause he¡¯s a dungeon killer I can go all out. An¡¯ no one will blame me or be surprised. Oh WOW! This is gonna be fun! ?

    Trisha felt breathless, ¡°But Mary, Torgan the Black is an elite adventurer, he could probably defeat you all on his own,¡± worried Trisha.

    ? Nah, not a chance, he¡¯s gonna fry! ... My first elite, can¡¯t wait. Hey Trish don¡¯ worry. I¡¯ve got it covered, I¡¯ve improved the lampreys, they¡¯ve got steel teeth now, I¡¯ve got some squid to ink up the place, and my new ¡¯letric ¡¯cudas ¡¯ll fry anyone stupid enough to wear armour whilst swimmin¡¯. Yeah Earth¡¯s ¡¯letric eels couldn¡¯t kill someone healthy, but my babies can deliver close to a thousand volts, for near a second. Ain¡¯t magic enhancement great! ?

    ¡°But ¨C but think what it¡¯ll do to your reputation,¡± worried Trisha.

    ? What? Like, don¡¯t beep mess with the spirit dolphin, ¡¯cause she¡¯ll kill you. ?

    ¡°Erm ... No, more like, killer dungeons that can kill elites are considered too dangerous to exist.¡±

    * * *

    ? Heh! Oh look Trish. Several mama dolphins and their kids have just entered my domain. Lets go greet ¡¯em. ?

    And with that Mary took off heading for the open ocean, heading to where she sensed the dolphin pod. She marked them as friends to prevent accidents. She recognised them as members of a nursery group so didn¡¯t expect any problems.

    Silverstreak spotted the stranger coming; she was not hiding and seemed friendly. And she was young, and showed the fearlessness of youth that was more usual in the males. She was unusually pale, so possibly was alone due to being ostracised for her unusual appearance.

    A boisterous meeting ensued as everyone introduced themselves. Mary showed her visitors a safe route through the reef, avoiding the commercial channel to the temple¡¯s dock. Mary explained the presence of the humans and of the temple.

    Silverstreak consulted with her friends. They decided to bide for awhile, the lagoon and surrounding waters were teeming with fish. And only a few readily identified species had to be avoided.

    The young female was overconfident, and she was strange. She was constantly heading off by herself, she was obviously a loner by choice, a fact that did unsettle them slightly.

    * * *

    Trisha watched her friend head off to welcome the dolphins. Then she dove and went directly to inform Danilus and the equally concerned Altor, of Mary¡¯s reaction. Then she went to find Purple Murex and Blacksand to give them the news.

    Her duty dealt with, Trisha retired to study what Mary had been up to. She found that there were now several varieties of Barracuda. The deadly flying fish were now far more numerous, with six schools patrolling the ocean, and the usual two in the lagoon. There were two varieties of lampreys, the monstrous new steel toothed variant, capable of boring a hole of between fifteen to twenty centimetres in diameter, and the original smaller specimens.

    Once again Mary seemed to be avoiding big terror inducing large monsters, for multiple deadly smaller but more agile threats. There even were some strange fish hunting birds in the mangrove swamp by shooting darts of poisoned water at them.

    Purple Murex and Blacksand made friends with the pod of dolphins and worried.

    Altor likewise made friends with the dolphins and prayed.

    Danilus just worried, whatever the result of the guild¡¯s evaluation, things could only get tenser.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C TORGAN THE BLACK * * *

    Torgan the Black sensed the dungeon¡¯s domain the moment the ship Heron crossed into it. Grumbling, he struggled into his armour, and came on deck. The other members of his team, the Stinging Hornets, dungeon killers all, joined him.

    ¡°Hey captain, how far are we from these islands?¡±

    The ship¡¯s captain was startled to see the Hornets all geared up, ¡°With this wind it¡¯ll be just over an hour, the isle is about six kilometres distant.¡±

    Torgan and his team looked at each other in surprise. They lined the rail and watched as the islands slowly grew near.

    ¡°That¡¯s a totally ridiculous domain. We may have to breath heavy before getting to the core,¡± joked Torgan.

    ? Five dungeon killers Trish, all five seem equally powerful too, we¡¯re gonna feast Trish. ?

    Trish just worried as Mary marshalled her forces. Finally, a good twenty minutes after the Heron entered her domain she struck. A full eight of her new lampreys latched onto the bottom of the Heron in a wide circle, and started boring. The copper sheathing the hull only slowed them slightly, but the noise and vibration was easily discernable to the crew and passengers.

    Torgan and his party came upright and looked to the captain, just as the Mk.4s began their run. As anticipated they were not effective against the armoured adventurers, but the crew suffered, and their work was disrupted. Evandor the mage was hit several times, he was able to survive, only thanks to the party¡¯s healer. He was however out of action for a crucial few minutes.

    The lampreys finished their first set of holes. They shifted and started a second set. Water pressure soon caused a two meter hole to open in the hull of the Heron. The Heron capsized and sank. The Stinging Hornets activated their magics of water breathing and moving, and started to drop towards the bottom of the sea.

    ¡°By Azurea¡¯s pearly teeth, what happened, where were the monsters?¡± ejaculated Torgan, ¡°who ever heard of attacking the transport!¡±

    The experienced adventurers formed a defensive globe, even as they sank towards the ocean¡¯s floor. All they could see were a few two meter long fish, and a rather larger eel like thing with a circular mouth, and several forty centimetre long squid.

    Then the squid jetted towards them and squirted out a cloud of ink that enveloped them, the ink seemed to contain a weak anti magic aura. Thus they didn¡¯t see the four dark coloured barracuda enter the cloud of ink as they approached to deliver their attacks. For one second, long jolts of just over nine hundred volts of electricity were delivered in a liquid designed to conduct electricity. Enchanted mithril armour did virtually nothing to protect its wearers.

    The mix of more conventional Barracuda, and the lampreys persistent grinding, constantly interspersed with electric shocks, wore down and finally killed the Stinging Hornets.

    The only result that counted as far as Mary was concerned; was that she now had access to mithril. And that meant she could try to give her lamprey mithril teeth.

    * * *

    ? Purple, Blackie... Mary killed the Stinging Hornets. They didn¡¯t stand a chance. It was easy... ?

    Blackie heard Trisha¡¯s voice in his head. She sounded shocked, which didn¡¯t surprise him in the slightest. He was shocked himself. The hornets were... had been, one of the most famous teams of adventurer¡¯s on Parthia.

    ? Mary sank their ship, there are survivors from the crew. But the sea is full of blood and monsters. Can you see if you can do something to save them? Mary just doesn¡¯t care. ?

    Trisha used her control of the dungeon functions to watch as Purple and Blackie led out some sea sprites on a rescue mission. She watched as they used some flotsam to put together a crude raft for the desperate survivors to cling to.

    Once the crew were in safe hands, Trisha used the dungeon abilities to collect the deceased adventurer¡¯s badges. Once that was done Trisha went to find Altor. She gifted him with the five elite ranked adventurers guild badges. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to do about these, Purple and Blackie are collecting most of the crew of the Heron. They are towing a rough raft they cobbled together to the settlement with the survivors.¡±

    Altor took the badges and delivered them to Danilus, along with the news regarding the survivors.

 Chapter 9 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C BLUE LAGOON * * *

    Trisha had come to investigate the new dungeon Mary had created. She had been still hoping to use it as a real dungeon. But everything she was seeing was not encouraging.

    She found it impossible not to laugh at the children¡¯s enthusiasm. The new fourth level of the Buried Palace or decoy dungeon was full. The stories in the strange but somehow enticing cartoon style were proving ridiculously popular. According to Mary the stories were, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rumpelstiltskin.

    How could she decide on monsters when the place was already infested by a band of small, shrill voiced monsters. Little monsters. Maybe that was the reason Mary seemed to be so fond of them.

    She sat by the entrance and watched, as what was surely every child currently living in their dungeon paraded before her eyes.

    * * *

    Danilus Oakborn sat on the shore looking out at the breakers crashing over the reefs. He was conferring with Altor Seaswept. They were trying to decide how to handle the current situation. They both hoped that Ocidon would restrain the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. So any execution order would at worst be delayed. Personally they were sure no execution order would be issued. Blue Lagoon was too remote and too difficult to reach. Especially considering the force that would be needed to challenge Ocidon.

    But they were worried that Mary was going to be classified at a higher category than she truly merited.

    Finally, after much discussion they decided to hope for the best, and wait to see what came of things.

    * * *

    Mary for her part was unhappy at how effective the adventurers enchanted mithril armour had proved. The obvious answers didn¡¯t appeal to her; they just seemed too easy to counter. So, once again she dropped into one of her obsessive phases. She emerged several days later full of ideas.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C SANDERSON THE WISE * * *

    Sanderson the Wise was dreaming. He found himself floating in an open looking underwater temple. The water was crystal clear, and his god, Ocidon was presiding at the altar. A pod of dolphins were swimming through the slender pillars, obviously in play.

    ? Good, you¡¯re here my faithful friend. I¡¯m sorry to impose but I have a task for you. A task that I know you will dislike. I have a message for Sofos Ironfist, you will deliver it to Sarannas. ?

    Ocidon beamed at a young dolphin that was inspecting him, then he reached out and stoked him gently.

    ? A brig belonging to Mary Silvestre, and charted to my temple will be arriving in Garonmouth this morning, the captain has a small box containing the guild badges of the adventurers sent to evaluate the Blue Lagoon Dungeon. Mary Silvestre killed them in the first engagement through the use of cunning tactics. By playing to her strengths. ?

    ? My message to Sofos is simple: Hands off my ally. Mary Silvestre ruling intelligence of the Blue Lagoon Dungeon is MINE. ?

    Sanderson floated around the other half of the temple. He then drifted seeing all that was to be seen in regards to the nascent settlement and castle. The dream concluded with Sanderson dropping off into a refreshing dreamless sleep.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C ADVENTURER¡¯S GUILD ¨C GARONMOUTH * * *

    Sofos Ironfist was busy trying to get ahead of his paperwork when his assistant, and second in command asked for a moment of his time. He looked up in irritation as Sarannas came into his office and sat down. He noted that she was looking very unhappy.

    ¡°I was summoned to the temple of Ocidon by Sanderson the Wise. He conveyed Ocidon¡¯s displeasure with the fact that we sent, quote; ¡®a team of overeager dungeon killers¡¯ to access his dungeon. His dungeon;¡± she said unhappily.

    Sarannas reached out and placed a small wooden box on Sofos¡¯ desk. ¡°Sanderson gave me that. And he ordered us in Ocidon¡¯s name, to advise the God, via his temple should we contemplate doing anything as reckless again.¡±

    Sofos exploded, ¡°HOW DARE THAT LITTLE PIPSQUEAK!¡±

    Sarannas winced, ¡°Sanderson wasn¡¯t happy,¡± she said. ¡°He was operating under orders, he¡¯s an easy man to read. This wasn¡¯t his idea, and as the only being that he can¡¯t disobey is Ocidon, I believe Ocidon is the one telling us to be careful.¡±

    Sarannas indicated the box, ¡°that¡¯s not the only bad news, the Sea Sprite, a small brigantine flying the temple flag arrived this morning, I assume it fetched that box, it also fetched the remaining crew of the Heron, the ship Torgan the Black sailed on.¡±

    Sofos played with the box then he opened it. He froze for a moment, then he emptied the five guild badges out on his table. ¡°Who has them?¡± He grated.

    ¡°They¡¯re dead Sofos, according to the sailors we¡¯ve talked to, when they entered the dungeon¡¯s domain, Torgan and the Stinging Hornets came out on deck, armed and armoured and stood watch at the ships rail. About half an hour after they entered the domain something attacked the ship and sank it. Nobody saw what it was. The Stinging Hornets equipped their magics and jumped into the ocean to confront the monster. One of the crew reports that they were engulfed in a cloud of squid ink and nobody saw them again.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s ridiculous, no squid however large could have killed them.¡±Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°I tend to agree, but we have their badges, and their lifestones are dead,¡± stated Sarannas. ¡°I know I said it was a bad idea, but I never expected this.¡±

    Sofos fumed quietly while examining the five tags. He looked up at his assistant guild master, ¡°We will have to classify Blue Lagoon Dungeon as Elite. Another such incident... and we can classify it Godlike, and damn the consequences.¡±

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C HELL¡¯S MOUTH & ZARNJDFJGMN * * *

    It hadn¡¯t taken Zarnjdfjgmn long to find a suitable location to begin his search. The stench of corruption had spread far. Whatever the cause was, it had been festering for some time. It had drawn him to this mountain village.

    The incubus drifted quietly above the small village, it truly smelled deliciously corrupt and evil. Someone or something had infested the place, and it was ripe for the picking. He was almost thankful that Hell¡¯s Mouth had summoned him. Damn but that dungeon was truly in the middle of nowhere, it had taken him over a day to get here.

    Down below, he could see the remains of a large fire. The remains of the fires surrounded a chain bedecked iron post. It had been erected in the centre of the village common. Then too, one of the houses near the common radiated agony and despair. Delicious!

    This village had all the signs that it housed a witch hunter, or something of the sort. He should be able to establish a link with someone from this place. There should be someone corrupt enough, probably more than one. Yes, but first he had to see to Hell¡¯s Mouth¡¯s request, or he might not survive.

    Zarnjdfjgmn phased through the roof of the delicious house, eating richly of the miasma of despair that surrounded it. He found two men torturing an elderly woman in the front room. In the rear, a badly mutilated young woman occupied one of the cells. He inspected her and smiled to himself, no darkness or light affinities, water and earth, yes but also air and life. She fit the requirements and the extras might screw up Hell¡¯s Mouth¡¯s plans, which was all to the good. But first he had to ensure he would not be interrupted.

    Zarnjdfjgmn manifested in the torture room, behind the man supervising the torture. With a swift blow he knocked him out. The hoarse despairing screams of the victim prevented the torturer from hearing anything, so he was easily able to slip behind him, knocking him out in turn.

    He was unable to resist his nature, and Hell¡¯s Mouth had given him the go ahead. Zarnjdfjgmn quickly raped the delirious victim, taking her soul and her life. He freed the body from the rack, and tossed it into one of the room¡¯s corners.

    Taking possession of the head torturer¡¯s keys he open the door to the room containing the cells. The young woman in the cell wasn¡¯t really lucid, and thus Zarnjdfjgmn found it ridiculously easy to get her to agree to becoming a dungeon core. Just the possibility of future vengeance, and a cessation of the agonies she was suffering.

    Zarnjdfjgmn was far more careful this time, and he plied his art to the full. He collected another soul and ended another life. He soothed the soul he had collected and examined his victim. He looked back at the open door to the torture chamber and smiled nastily.

    He picked up the young woman¡¯s body and carried it through to the chamber of horrors. Then he carefully arranged her body on the rack. He studied the scene for a few instants before further damaging the body. He stepped back with a feeling of satisfaction. The way things looked now, the two torturers would be blamed for the death.

    Zarnjdfjgmn phased through the roof of the torture house and spent some time exploring the village. He found several potential hosts. He explored these human monsters carefully before he located the perfect host. Very carefully he insinuated his soul seed into his chosen, oh so evil and corrupt future host.

    As he drifted over the village he decided that Hell¡¯s Mouth had indeed done him a favour. But he was most definitely not going to let him know. And then, almost reluctantly, Zarnjdfjgmn reached for his summoning circle and he found himself back in the depths of Hell¡¯s Mouth dungeon.

    * * *

    Hell¡¯s Mouth, Arbogar and Zarnjdfjgmn stood ¨C if gems and wraiths could be said to stand ¨C at the three points of a triangle around a brown tourmaline. Arbogar chanted his ritual while Hell¡¯s Mouth fed him mana. Zarnjdfjgmn sweated ¨C figuratively ¨C nervously. At the appropriate point Zarnjdfjgmn released the soul of the young woman slowly and carefully, absorbing some of her worst memories as he did so.

    Then Arbogar¡¯s magic caught hold of the soul and it was sucked into the gem. With a final twist, Hell¡¯s Mouth and Arbogar, sealed the now glowing tourmaline. They noted with satisfaction that the glow in the heart of the new dungeon core, was comprised almost equally of blue, green and brown.

    ? You have done well Zarnjdfjgmn, leave now and enjoy your reward. ? Hell¡¯s Mouth voice echoed in Zarnjdfjgmn¡¯s head.

    Zarnjdfjgmn sneered and snarled a few times for show, then vanished. As hell strove to claim him once more he clung desperately to his soul seed he had planted in the boy, and slowly dragged himself back into the world.

    Joyfully Zarnjdfjgmn poured his soul, his very being into the thoroughly corrupted youth he had selected during his visit to the village and started to access the child¡¯s memories. The soul of his victim proved elusive, it slipped away from him, it was literally jerked out of his grasp as it snapped into his former body, as this was dragged down to the hells.

    Something had gone wrong, Zarnjdfjgmn, no he was Abriman now. Abriman shook his head and scanned those few memories of his new body that he had been able to retain. Abriman had been truly evil, his father¡¯s teachings and example had guaranteed that. Abriman had so far always appeared under his father¡¯s shadow. He could use that. He had to use that. And with that atrocious witch hunter in the village he had to be careful, very careful.

    * * *

    Hell¡¯s Mouth and Arbogar watched carefully to ensure the incubus was indeed gone. Only after they were they sure did they turn their attention to the new dungeon core. Not being particularly subtle they told Sandrinna why they had done what they had done. Then they withdrew from the first three levels of their former dungeon, passing over control of the domain and creatures to her.

    They sealed the stairways linking level three to level four, and withdrew with their guards to the depths of their slightly reduced, and still mostly abandoned dungeon complex. Hell¡¯s Mouth grumbling all the while, at having had to expend a bit more of Azurea¡¯s mana.

    * * *

    Sandrinna was feeling bewildered. The demon Zarnsomethingorother had actually been telling the truth, the memories of the torture she had endured at Rovoc¡¯s orders were blunted, she was in a dangerous position, and she didn¡¯t trust either Hell¡¯s Mouth or Arbogar a millimetre. But she realized that for the time being, they needed her. She had a small three level dungeon, with two levels partially occupied. She seemed to have been given a lot of knowledge, but she had no idea what to do with it.

    ? Congratulations young dungeon you may choose one starting monster type, please choose from the following. ?

    ? Wha¡ª? ?

    ? As you lack the affinities to control two of the standard starting monster types they will be exchanged for more suitable types. ?

    ? What? ?

    ? Be aware that you will be restricted by your choice until you accumulate sufficient mana and experience to obtain further advances. ?

    ? Insects¡ª ? ? Eeek! ?

    ? Goblins¡ª ? ? ... ?

    ? Kobolds¡ª ? ? ... ?

    ? Wisps¡ª ? ? ... ?

    ? Slimes¡ª ? ? ... ?

    ? Lesser Beasts¡ª ? ? ... ?

    ¡®Hmmm...¡¯ Sandrinna looked round her domain, lots of beasts present so that option was covered.

    ? Hmmm... I¡¯ll try Kobolds please. ?

    The System seemed surprised, ? A polite dungeon, what is the world coming to. Done! Kobolds it is. ?

    And Sandrinna was submerged in more information about Kobolds than she really wanted.

 Chapter 10 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C BLUE LAGOON * * *

    ? Hey Trish I need your help. ?

    Trish promptly stopped studying the electricity wielding barracuda, and used her dungeon gained ability to teleport to Mary¡¯s core. She sighed. Mary¡¯s core was still barely buried in the sand at the bottom of the lagoon despite the fact that it had grown considerably.

    ¡°What do you need Mary?¡± asked Trisha.

    ? Ocidon just informed me that a party of sea folk adventurers are on their way an'' asked me to play nice ¡¯cause they¡¯re standard delvers. So how do I set rewards, an¡¯ what will they expect? ?

    ? If I don¡¯t meddle then they will meet small groups of defenders, guess that¡¯s standard ain¡¯t it? ?

    Trisha couldn¡¯t help smiling. This was more like it. If she could only get Mary to act more like a dungeon!

    ¡°Well, you have to decide what one of your monsters is worth, and attach treasure to them. You know copper and silver coins, maybe even gold. So that when they are defeated the treasure drops, and the adventurers can collect it. Individually, I think only the electric barracuda merit gold at the moment.¡±

    ? Erm... Trish have you checked out the stingrays I have guarding me? ?

    Trisha blinked, looked and shuddered. The giant stingrays hiding under the sand could each pump out half again more electricity than the barracudas, and their poison was truly potent. They all had monster cores!

    ¡°Um, yes, they are nasty!¡±

    ? Don¡¯ really want to drop coinage, metal is kinda hard to make, how ¡¯bout I drop the occasional pearl. After all, I ¡¯spect most of my creations could be useful for alchemists an¡¯ the like. ?

    ¡°Well, coins are just low value treasure, pearls are too valuable. Why don¡¯t we exchange a few pearls for ingots of copper and silver and possibly gold, then all you¡¯ll have to do is make the coins with them.¡±

    ? Good idea for the future, not much help now. ¡¯K I¡¯ll make a few copper coins and if they defeat one of my combined patrols I¡¯ll let them have a pearl or two. ?

    * * *

    They conferred and hashed out several plans to avoid simply killing the approaching intruders. It ran counter to Mary¡¯s instincts. But Trisha knew her well, and was able to make her happier with the idea. She even used the opportunity to get Mary to agree to creating a set of caverns, selling the idea as a unique environment for specialised creatures. Trisha reluctantly accepted that they wouldn¡¯t be ready in time, suspecting that they would never get created.

    Somewhat reluctantly, Mary reorganised her ocean patrols. Either creating or hurrying the growth of new guardians and scouts, and developing an unusual amount of intelligence and cooperation in her creations, however being fish intelligence was most decidedly relative.

    Then as was her custom, she was sidetracked. The intelligence thing had sparked one of her memories from earth. She recalled a TV program praising the intelligence of octopi, so she went searching and found several species living in her domain. Then she was lost in study and experimentation.

    Trisha was frustrated; it had happened again, her dungeon had disappeared into one of her obsessive trances. She was also getting worried, ¡®At least she did implement most of our ideas. But I can¡¯t help worrying, she is just too... too prone to... to consider killing as the solution of choice. Even for a dungeon she is too... ruthless. I need more information...¡¯

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C SHARK¡¯S BANE PARTY * * *

    Sildanus, the merman leader of the Shark¡¯s Bane adventurers party relaxed as he saw the extinct underwater volcano in the distance. The journey from Tarasand had been tedious. Happily there had been no adventures. And he was glad he had remembered this place, it would make an ideal base for their upcoming adventure.

    The group of friends and partners quickly made camp with the ease of long experience. The mostly circular, flattish top of the underwater mountain was covered with a thick bed of sea grass. They were able to supplement their rations by catching several creatures that made the mountain their home.

    As they rested after their meal they went over what they knew about the new dungeon. Sildanus had learned about it while he was visiting the dryside Guild office in Tarasand. The news that the Stinging Hornets had met their fate at the hands of an Oceanic Dungeon had sparked his interest.

    Blue Lagoon was the first of its kind. All the other dungeons that they knew about that incorporated aquatic environments, used underwater cave systems. They had all been a bit sarcastic about the landlubbers and their classification. Still, the Guild classifications often tended to become self fulfilling prophecies as the System reacted. So the fact that Blue Lagoon was classified Elite+ did make them wary.

    ¡°Ha! So what if the surface dwellers classified her as Elite+, they can¡¯t handle the ocean...¡± said Froomar as always.

    ¡°We have to be ready to withdraw at once. If she is as bloodthirsty as rumours suggest...¡± and that was Drixia their cleric. Ironically enough she was Froomar¡¯s wife, cautious where he was reckless.

    Then it was Harmanus¡¯ turn, ¡°All know of their incompetence in the sea, even the Stinging Hornets proved no different.¡±

    ¡°I hear they tended to an overreliance on magic,¡± joked Froomar.

    ¡°Stop joking you big lunk,¡± grumbled Massina, their mage. ¡°What about Blue Lagoon¡¯s ability to sink ships? Doesn¡¯t that show she is strange?¡±

    The discussion wound down, and after checking their equipment, and making sure they had eveything ready for the next day, they settled in for the night. Early the following morning the Shark¡¯s Bane set off on the latest round of their quest in search of experience and treasure.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C ADVENTURER¡¯S GUILD ¨C GARONMOUTH * * *

    The altar of Hel-Arlizzy had been relocated ¨C with all due ceremony ¨C from a dusty corner of the cellars in the Garonmouth Adventurers Guild building, to a small out of the way inner room on the second floor. Currently the shrine was being carefully tended by one of the few adventurers who had remained faithful to Hel-Arlizzy.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Now Sofos Ironfist and his number two Sarannas were in the shrine seeking knowledge, they wanted to know why so many new dungeons were appearing now, the guild had news of twelve so far, just this year. And they feared that they would have to petition Azurea. However, they preferred to avoid that, as the goddesses had an uncertain temper, and was prone to erratic behaviour.

    Estgadon whose class had recently changed from Rogue to Priest was officiating, and the god deigned to reply. Whether this was good or bad only time would tell. The message imparted was brief.

    ? Rejoice! The new Gods have overreached and are in trouble. Five months ago Azurea seeded twenty-five new dungeons, and a further six have spawned as a consequence of her actions. Six of the twenty-five retain soul links with other worlds. ?

    And then, just for his new priest, ? Well done Estgadon, I am well pleased with you. ?

    Nothing further was forthcoming. Sofos retired to the comfort of his own office with Sarannas. They summoned Taron the Ravager and Ustina the Quick to join them.

    The meeting resulted in the bringing forward of the annual scry for new dungeons, as according to Hel-Arlizzy they had nineteen new dungeons to find. It was also quickly and unanimously decided to keep out of the affairs of the gods a much as possible, as he of the scaly tail had virtually confirmed that a period of turbulence if not outright hostilities was starting amongst the gods.

    A lengthy and wordy document was produced, all due care was taken to include all the standard elaborate and portentous prefaces and addenda, so as to maintain Guild dignity while containing their findings and decisions. Thanking the gods for magic copiers, the Guild secretary produced ten copies and arranged for their immediate delivery to the ten most important Adventurers Guild offices on Parthia.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C DUNGEON COMPANIONS¡¯ LEAGUE * * *

    In her private office, which consisted of two in her apartment at the bottom of the godlike dungeon Hell Pit, Marigold was feeling much put upon. She decided that the System was ¨C unsurprisingly ¨C to blame.

    ¡°Another one!¡± she squinted at the pale blue messages and listened to the System¡¯s voice. The damn thing was actually sounding apologetic. ¡°Hold on isn¡¯t that where I sent that poor deluded Wisp on Azurea¡¯s orders. The one that was to partner with ¨C ANS 48 ¨C wasn¡¯t it. The poor sod found Hell¡¯s Mouth. I¡¯m not sending one of mine to feed Hell¡¯s Mouth.¡±

    ? No, this is a new dungeon core. She will require a cunning partner, as she already has one dangerous enemy, and a very uncertain and potentially treacherous ally. ?

    ? As for ANS 48, she rejected that appellation. Outfoxed Azurea, not that difficult after all, and tricked ME! Mary¡¯s currently quite happy driving her Sea Sprite partner up the wall. The Guild have classified her Elite+. ?

    ¡°Sea Sprite! I don¡¯t have any Sea Sprites on the books. Oh very well, I¡¯ll find someone, but it will be difficult, it¡¯s out in the middle of a damn desert after all!¡±

    And if that wasn¡¯t enough, she now had this wordy pompous document to figure out.

    Marigold fluttered her wings in irritation; it was moments like this that both made life worth living, while being totally annoying, and exasperating. First Azurea had dumped twenty-five new dungeons in her lap, and handpicked their companions to boot, and then the system had rubbed her nose in the fact that she wasn¡¯t keeping up with her duties. Now this, one of her sympathisers in the Adventurers Guild had managed to get her this five page document that said the Old Gods were scenting blood and were stirring. Hel-Arlizzy was back and Ocidon the Earthshaker had snatched one of the new dungeons from under Azurea¡¯s nose. And a further SIX new dungeons! She knew of Hell¡¯s Mouth and the system told of one other but that still left four to find.

    First the easy part, she had to get that Sea Sprite registered. She had to get that kind of talent on the books, managing to push a new dungeon into Elite+ ranking in a matter of months.

    Marigold concentrated on the crystal block set into the wall of her office and muttered a well-worn spell. The surface of the crystal wavered and cleared, showing an expanse of sea, the view sharpened and a few green specks appeared in the centre of the image. Marigold started when she noted the scale in the corner, the domain was a perfect circle centred on the temple in the middle of the lagoon, and it had a diameter of twenty-five kilometres. She zoomed in on the islands seeking the dungeon itself.

    Soon she found herself watching a pod of dolphins playing in the lagoon. It only took her a few seconds to realize that her spell was following the pale dolphin. She was looking at the dungeon¡¯s avatar.

    Sea sprite, seek the sea sprite. She soon located three, and as she knew she was looking for a female that only left one option so...

    ? Hello youngster, let me introduce myself, I am Marigold the current head of the Dungeon Companions¡¯ League. ?

    Trisha started in surprise, she recognised the communication spell being used despite being unable to cast it herself. But she did know how to use it once it was in existence.

    ? Good afternoon Marigold, what can I do for you? ?

    A good half hour of frank discussion left both the participants partially satisfied. Trisha was on the books as an independent companion. Mary when dragged into the talks had been adamant that she, and thus by extension Trisha, were allied to Ocidon, and that was that, no others were going to have any control over her and hers. Marigold for her part got part of what she wanted and was able distance herself from at least one of the gods involved in this mess. Also, she now had a priceless memory stone showing the final few minutes of those dungeon killers the Stinging Hornets, from the moment of the attack on the Heron to the death of Torgan the Black. That was going to have pride of place in her trophy cabinet!

    Marigold smiled ruefully to herself. Trisha had actually admitted to trying to hold her dungeon back. Mary Silvestre was overconfident, a wild headstrong tinkerer, Marigold made a mental note to keep a cautious eye on the pair.

    Now she had to see what could be done for the other youngster. After looking things over carefully, Marigold decided to send young Darkmoon. He was one of the two who volunteered for the post, the other volunteer was Flicker, a wisp, and she wasn¡¯t risking another wisp near Hell¡¯s Mouth. She had a quick chat with Darkmoon, and considering the circumstances, let him in on some secrets that might save his life. She also shared her new memory crystal with him ¨C after all his great uncle had died at the hands of Torgan¡¯s band. Then reluctantly she dispatched him to meet his new partner.

    Now she had to find the other four new dungeons.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary examined the tickets she was holding in her hands. She grinned and thanked mama and Flip for the tickets to HawaiiCon, It was being held at The Mauna Lani Bay Hotel in September. All she could think was: ¡®Oh wow! I¡¯m going to the con and it is all paid for!¡¯

    As a reward for her advanced studies coup it was proving somewhat counterproductive.

    A little later, her mother and brother watched as she dashed out of the door with her fishing gear, they looked at each other with resigned looks. They both knew what the other was thinking.

    * * *

    Mary was indulging herself with her favourite pastime. She was currently reeling in a fish, she was grinning, and by the feel of her rod, she had something decent on the hook.

    Mary was feeling stunned: she had just reeled in her latest catch, and a dolphin playing on the other side of the breaking waves. It was joking with her, and she could understand him. The cheeky little so and so was trying to tell her she had stolen his lunch!

    She couldn¡¯t help it. She grinned, ¡°¡¯K you greedy thing, catch!¡± she said, even as she unhooked her catch, and threw it to the dolphin, who did indeed catch it.

    And it replied, she just knew it replied, ¡°Not greedy, just hungry. Cute accent girl!¡±

    So she threw it her previous catch too even as she wondered how she was able to understand what he was saying.

    Her new friend hung around until it was time for her to return home. Today she was bereft of fish, the jokester with dirty sense of humour ate everything she caught.

    * * *

    That night Mary¡¯s dreams were full of tentacles. Octopi and squid paraded before her eyes, occasionally interspersed with barracuda.

    She woke before the dawn and stared up at the ceiling. She was going to have to check the databases up at the uni; but she was willing to bet most of what she now knew was accurate. The ideas regarding DNA manipulation were ¨C intriguing. She knew intellectually, that ideas of DNA manipulation and genetic engineering should be scary. Only, she wasn¡¯t scared, she was intrigued. It would be fun to create those octopi.

    Oh well, School, planning for the con and fishing. Maybe Flipper¡¯s cousin would show up again with his dirty sense of humour. Some of those wicked jokes just had to translate.

 Chapter 11 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C BLUE LAGOON * * *

    Trisha had finally managed to master the flow of information Mary had available from outside her dungeon, the sheer volume of information was staggering, if mostly useless. The only thing she found of even mild interest, was that the pirates of Port Salvage seemed to be up to something.

    Following Mary¡¯s intentions, she directed one of their border patrols to the aid of a group of worshipers, and escorted them safely to the lagoon. While she was doing this, she noted a group of adventurers. So she went to warn Mary that the adventurers they had been expecting had arrived.

    She found Mary wrapped up in experimentation and research. ¡®Not again, what is she doing with those octopi?¡¯ wondered Trisha.

    ¡°Mary! Mary, come on. Pay attention, the adventurers have arrived.¡±

    Mary reluctantly stopped her tinkering with Pete, and she placed him beside Shirley in a nice ¨C for an octopus ¨C cave.

    ? Sorry Trish just got carried away with Pete and Shirley. ?

    ¡°Pete and Shirley?¡±

    ? Hey don¡¯t knock it. At least I didn¡¯t name ¡¯em Adam and Eve. ?

    Trisha was starting to feel bewildered again, and was glad when Mary linked with her, and they watched the Adventurer¡¯s excursion.

    ? Some promise there Trish, but they¡¯re too hidebound! If they don¡¯t learn to adapt to changing circumstances, they¡¯ll remain fresh meat. Yeah, yeah I know, Trish, but I really see no reason to concentrate on the tin can. ?

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C SHARK¡¯S BANE PARTY * * *

    Sildanus and his friends were floating a few hundred meters outside the dungeon¡¯s domain. They were trying to pick up any clues as to what awaited them, so far all they had seen were a few mid sized squid, which seemed to be intent on studying them back. Something they found vaguely worrying.

    They were keeping an eye on a group of pilgrims that were being led by a priest, and that seemed to be headed for the dungeon. Then they saw two tiger sharks circling the pilgrims preparing to attack. The pilgrims reacted in a way that showed they were well practised in confronting these dangers. The cloud of blood produced by the attack on one unlucky, or careless pilgrim was likely to cause further problems.

    With a quick look around, Sildanus led his friends to their help. But he was astonished when several barracuda left the concealment of a mass of floating seaweed in the dungeon, and attacked the sharks. The sharks seemed to be affected by something before the barracuda even arrived. The sharks didn¡¯t last long, seeing that they were virtually disabled, even before the fish tore into them. The Barracuda then dropped into a loose formation around the pilgrims, and escorted them into the dungeon.

    ¡°Well that was unique, I think we need more information. How were those sharks disabled?¡± asked Sildanus.

    ¡°I think it was lightning, some kind of area lightning effect,¡± replied Massina their mage.

    ¡°The dungeon acted outside its domain,¡± stated Froomar worriedly.

    ¡°But only to help the followers of Ocidon on their way to visit the temple it contains,¡± hopefully clarified Drixia his wife.

    ¡°I suspect we¡¯d have a difficult job against that group,¡± stated Sildanus. ¡°Should we proceed or should we visit the temple and see what we can learn?¡±

    After the pilgrims had disappeared, the members of the Shark¡¯s Bane formed up in their usual formation and advanced warily into the dungeon. Their first few encounters were not too problematic, but they were informative. Their chief opposition consisted of the barracuda operating in conjunction with squid. The squid inked the water, and the fish attacked from cover. The ink muted spells weakening them slightly, and the barracuda went for the more active party members, mostly ignoring the taunts of their tank.

    They withdrew shaken and wounded after meeting the first combined group that contained one of the dark coloured barracuda, the ones that pulsed a lightning aura. That and one horror of a lamprey, that just tore through armour.

    The spoils were good, fish, copper and silver coins, two nice pearls and the lamprey¡¯s mithril teeth.

    After healing their wounds back at their temporary encampment amongst the seagrass, they decided to see if the dungeon would allow them to visit the temple.

    Next morning they approached the dungeon again, wearing their travelling gear, and with weapons sheathed. The smaller squid were present at the border, just like on the previous day. A few of these escorted them all the way into the lagoon, where they were met by Altor Seaswept, the merman priest in charge of the underwater half of the temple of Ocidon on Sea.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C HELL¡¯S MOUTH * * *

    Hell¡¯s Mouth and Arbogar settled down to regain their former glory. They were content to proceed slowly. They were happy to rest from the frantic efforts they had been put to in order to maximise their chances of survival, after that rather upsetting visit from Azurea. They even were considering expanding sideways, and migrating their dungeon to the opposite side of the mountain chain. They were reluctantly coming to the conclusion that maybe they should cut their losses and move.

    But first they decided to see how their decoy would fare. They really hated the thought of having to start from scratch. And it was all Azurea¡¯s fault anyway.

    Hell¡¯s Mouth spawned a few guardian monsters. Then they set out to slowly grind in all the ways past experience showed would work ¨C even if they were not nearly as good as the more traditional methods.

    Then too, if they were going to relocate, summoning some kind of flying demon to do some exploring might be a wise move. But they had time. Hopefully they had enough time.

    * * *

    Hell¡¯s Mouth and Arbogar finally bit the bullet and summoned another demon. They employed all due caution, despite the fact, that this time they were only summoning an imp. They needed to summon one because it was going to spend a long time outside their domain.

    Bjitgjifgnb the Imp of the fifth court found himself summoned by a Dungeon Core and a Wraith. He raged, as was customary, even as he inspected the summoning circle for flaws. He was unsurprised to find none.

    The Wraith hissed in amusement as he watched the Imp''s attempts. Bjitgjifgnb was annoyed, the cursed Wraith was mocking him. Then Arbogar ordered, ¡°Bjitgjifgnb you will explore all around our dungeon, for a dissstance of half-a-daysss¡¯ brisk flight. You will return and draw usss a map of what you find. Find usss sssomewhere with prey.¡±

    Beejay as he liked to call himself found himself securely bound to obey their command, and he soon found himself flying under the cruel glare of the sun. For it was the middle of the day, and he was in the midst of what looked like a desolate waste.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C SANDRINNA * * *

    ¡®Hmm, now what do I know about Kobolds, how can I best use them?¡¯ Sandrinna mused. Even as she wondered she received a rush of recently learned information.

    ? Kobolds are craven reptilian humanoids that worship dragons serving as their minions. Kobolds prefer to inhabit dragons¡¯ lairs but more commonly infest dungeons. ?

    ? Kobolds are egg-laying creatures. They mature rapidly and can live for over a century. Usually they live less than ten years. Physically weak, they are easy prey for predators. They work well together and with superior numbers they can be dangerous. ?

    Sandrinna contemplated what she had learned so far. ¡®Craven, that seems harsh given their size and abilities. I would say, understandably cautious,¡¯ she decided.

    ? Kobolds make up for their weakness with their cunning trap making and expert tunnelling. ?

    Sandrinna perked up at that and decided, ¡®Now that is something I need, so how do I spawn these things, Oh! Like that! So, let''s get to work!¡¯

    Sandrinna concentrated and spent most of her available resources to create five breeding pairs of Kobolds turning them loose on her second level.

    She watched as her kobolds started exploring, she was amused when her kobolds started setting traps, and excavating a small tunnel, that would be very difficult for a full grown human to traverse. She couldn¡¯t help worrying though. She had nothing capable of stopping a capable group of adventurers, also, she had no herbs or metals to serve as treasure.

    * * *

    Darkmoon hid until evening, then he did a quick scout of the area the dungeon was located in. He had rarely seen such arid desolation. The sorry excuse of a stream that flowed from the dungeon¡¯s mouth had already attracted assorted wildlife.

    Finally, nigh on midnight, he decided to approach his potential partner. He entered the wide cave mouth. He found the cave to be surprisingly welcoming, the floor was covered in lush cave grass, and there was a fair sized pool in the centre of the cave that contained crystal clear water.

    Keeping close to the ceiling and using all due caution he worked his way deeper into the dungeon. He found the dungeon core at the end of the second level. Gripping his courage, he initiated contact. He found the dungeon core to be an anxious, and worried young woman, who had only recently been turned into a dungeon via a vile necromantic ritual. She let him know that Hell¡¯s Mouth had created her as a decoy, a cold blooded sacrifice to appease Azurea.

    Darkmoon found that he liked Sandrinna. She was nice, and he felt that she needed stiffening. He felt that she might allow her compassion to betray her. He offered his help, and to be her companion.

    Sandrinna was feeling the lack of friends. Darkmoon was the first being to offer her friendship in some time. And she could feel his compassion. So she accepted.

    The deal was struck and the bond was created. Darkmoon swore that his dungeon was not going to be sacrificed on his watch. And it wasn¡¯t just because he had bound his fate to a likable sapient dungeon.

    Sandrinna and Darkmoon spent several hours learning about each other. Almost reluctantly, the two turned their attention to their dungeon.

    Sandrinna was feeling far more confident now. It helped immensely that she had Darkmoon to discuss things with. Just having an uncritical friend filled a deep-rooted ¨C need ¨C in her existence as a dungeon.

    She also felt more confident in her creature¡¯s abilities, especially after Darkmoon shared his memories of how a dungeon had defeated a superior group of adventurers, only using a group of monsters that individually should have had no chance. Mind you they still had to figure out a way of creating an unexpected and hostile environment.

    Sandrinna examined her dungeon again. She focused her attention on the small tunnel her kobolds had dug. It now had an interesting trap. The idea of small trapped tunnels seemed interesting, especially when coupled with her Kobolds.

    After consulting with Darkmoon, she created a small maze of Kobold sized tunnels. Then she moved herself to a room at the end of her new maze. Finally she turned her Kobolds loose on the maze and gave them carte blanche to create traps and hazards.

    Then came the hard part, to override her kobolds programming. She worked hard to get her guardians to cooperate, and to ignore the tank. From what she had seen in Blackmoon¡¯s memory, that other dungeon had hit the mage and the healer first.

 Chapter 12 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C GREAT CIRCLE OCEAN * * *

    The ruling council of the Neap Tide Tribe ¨C all three of them ¨C met shortly after their matriarch, Sarisha, received an official missive from Marigold the head of the Dungeon Companions¡¯ League, informing her of the fact that Trisha had been recognised as the Dungeon Companion to an Elite+ ranked dungeon, and that she was now formally allied to the League.

    Sarisha opened proceedings, ¡°I trust the two of you are up to date on what is happening with that Blue Lagoon dungeon?¡±

    Dawnbright nodded his head and Abalone the White said, ¡°Yes, after all I was there recently when we went to support Trisha.¡±

    Then there was a short exchange of ideas, as the three ensued that they all knew the same things.

    ¡°Abalone, do you think we could persuade Mary to house some of our more sedentary tribes folk? Would they be safe?¡± asked Sarisha.

    ¡°I believe Trisha would help persuade her partner. As for them being safe, that depends on several possibilities. It depends principally on how Mary intends to defend her domain,¡± explained Abalone the White.

    ¡°She must be ¨C ruthless ¨C in her defence, she¡¯s been classified Elite+ by the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. And, Abalone, didn¡¯t you tell us that Trisha complained at the difficulty of restraining Mary.¡±

    ¡°That could cause them trouble, but with their remote location and that temple...¡± mused Dawnbright.

    After a bit more of a discussion, they unanimously decided to explore the possibility of making the dungeon one of their tribe¡¯s official homes. They agreed that settling some of their more sedentary minded members in the safety of so powerful a dungeon could only strengthen their tribe. And they felt hopeful that Mary and Trisha were already favourable to their tribe.

    So as Lacenia was currently off on one of her adventures, the council, rather callously decided to send Varina with their decision and regards to Purple Murex. Thereby placing the matter of obtaining permission in that individual¡¯s capable hands.

    Varina felt more than a bit intimidated; she preferred the comforts of home, she was after all a teacher and not a scout. She had to scramble to get a couple of her friends to take over her tasks. Teaching children might not be glamorous, but it was necessary.

    She felt grateful that, she had at least been there before, and therefore knew the way. After being briefed by the tribal elders, Varina, rather apprehensively set off on her first solo journey since her coming of age trials.

    She arrived at Mary¡¯s dungeon in good time, and marvelled at the growth of its domain. She ventured in warily, ready to bolt at the least sign of danger. Fortunately for her peace of mind, Blacksand met her. He led her to the impressive home Mary had created for her guests. There Varina met Purple Murex and delivered the council¡¯s message.

    After making sure Varina was comfortable, Purple Murex sought out Mary¡¯s dolphin avatar, ¡°I know we aren¡¯t giving you much notice, I apologise for that. But could you find it in your heart to allow the Neap Tide Tribe to make your dungeon into one of its homes. We have several members that are finding the nomad lifestyle hard, and need to settle.¡±

    Mary was surprised by the request; as far as she was concerned she had already given permission for the sea sprites to settle, just so long as they left her alone.

    ? No problem Purple, but only if Trisha has nothing against the individuals in question. Check with Trish ¡¯K? ?

    ¡°Thank you Mary, I will,¡± agreed a much-relieved Purple, and after an embarrassed pause Purple withdrew to pass on the good tidings.

    On being informed Varina screwed up her courage and prepared for her return journey. Blacksand however decided to accompany her back to their tribe. He was well aware of her shortcomings. And despite admiring the bravery she had shown in delivering the message alone, both he and Purple wished to spare her a repeat performance. At least, until she had received more instruction when it came to solitary voyaging.

    After consulting with Trisha and getting the go ahead Mary greatly expanded the sprites¡¯ home.

    Blacksand was soon back, and he sought out Trisha in pursuit of an idea he had had while escorting Varina. He had not realised just how desperately some people missed the comforts of a home before, so he had decided to see if Mary would allow a sea-dweller inn in her lagoon.

    Trisha consulted her partner. She was surprised at the result, and she was able to inform Blacksand that Mary had actually been enthusiastic at the idea. Mary had suggested a location between the nascent town and the Mangrove forest. But she had insisted that the inn had to cater to air-breathers and water-breathers alike.

    Blacksand had not been thinking of an inn that straddled water and air. Blacksand thought about the possibilities and went to talk with his friend Altor. Then he got Altor to help him consult with several of the recent arrivals, and with the temple priests.

    His plans snowballed and he found himself putting his very ambitious plans to Mary with Trisha¡¯s help.

    Mary had seen the need for something of this nature so after she got Blacksand to agree to pay her a five percent tax she adapted the plans, increasing the size of the building. She then grew the new inn overnight. A large building with wide glass-filled windows built into the island with three underwater levels one intermediate level where the water level would be about waist high to an adult and two levels above the surface of the sea.

    In the morning, a stupefied Blacksand stared at his new inn, after some thought he named it ¡®Spirit Dolphin Inn¡¯.

    * * *

    Altor was amused, this party of adventurers was so predictable, examining everything as they approached the temple, and joined the congregation for his service. He wondered what they would think of Mary¡¯s verdict as relayed to him by Trisha.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    After the service in the unusual but spectacular temple, Sildanus approached Altor, ¡°Excuse me, could you tell us what we can do during our stay, and what is forbidden?¡±

    ¡°You can do anything you would do in a normal community. You¡¯re welcome to stay in the inn that Blacksand the sprite is setting up or just camp in the safe area Mary has set aside. As Trisha relayed, just don¡¯t be stupid and kick one of the stingrays,¡± replied Altor with a wide grin.

    ¡°Excuse me but what do you find so amusing?¡± enquired Drixia.

    Altor laughed, ¡°Sorry but I just can¡¯t get something Mary said about your party out of my head.¡±

    Feeling a bit affronted Sildanus asked, ¡°The dungeon! What did she have to say?¡±

    ¡°Why she just said ¡®they show some promise but they¡¯re too hidebound! If they don¡¯t learn they¡¯ll remain fresh meat¡¯. Then apparently she said something about seeing no need to attack the tin can.¡±

    ¡°Huh!¡± huffed Froomar, the party¡¯s designated tank.

    They found that the Spirit Dolphin Inn was surprisingly comfortable if somewhat understaffed, and thus, for the time being, very cheap.

    * * *

    Mary decided to check on something Trish had mentioned a few days earlier, soon the two were spying somewhat ineffectively on the pirates of Port Salvage via the local flying fish. The pirate leader did seem to be putting together a fleet, which would mean trouble for someone. Mary wanted to foil his plans because she just plainly despised pirates, so she decided to keep an eye on them.

    Now, back to Pete and Shirley, a few more tweaks and maybe she¡¯d have her first mages.

    * * * CREEVAR¡¯S KILLERS * * *

    Harrassan, an itinerant monk of the order of Creevar Explorer, smiled smugly at the opportunity he had been offered. Sreecator, a priest of Creevar and his brother smiled back. They were blessed, a holy mission from their god, and the rewards for seizing a dungeon core specializing in undead would be theirs too.

    Two weeks later neither man was feeling happy, the desert was debilitating and demoralizing, and camels were an invention of the devil himself. The two young drovers they had hired were the only members of the expedition that weren¡¯t depressed. The two dirty, smelly siblings were more than happy working for these silly foreigners who had so overpaid them for this simple task.

    Finally, they reached Hell¡¯s Mouth. Avor and Essa watered their charges from the stream coming from the cave, and gathered forage from the cave for the grateful camels.

    The adventurers dug a pool for the stream to fill, then they took a bath before the incredulous gaze of their hirelings, who were convinced that water was for drinking and sand was for washing.

    Horaxanna relaxed after her bath, she combed her hair and plaited it into a crown on her head, she then carefully plaited her beard with colourful ribbons and carefully applied her makeup, before donning her chainmail hauberk and hood. Then added her heavy plate armour and great helm. Wielding a steel reinforced shield with a one-handed battleaxe, the dwarf strode into the dungeon. Warminor in his star spangled midnight blue mage robes followed with Sreecator. Zashaan went ahead her eyes flashing from side to side as she checked for traps, while Harrassan followed behind shadowboxing with his spiked cestus, getting himself ready for battle.

    Avor and Essa made a dry camp at some distance from the stream and settled down to wait.

    The adventurers had an easy time clearing the dungeon; they made sure to kill everything they came across. Sandrinna was terrified and used most of her remaining mana to drive a long narrow tunnel out of the cave she found herself in.

    The adventurers were frustrated; it would appear their target was hiding in the Kobold tunnels. They decided to withdraw to the entrance cave and seek inspiration. After a fright, when they thought their hirelings had absconded with their transport they settled down for the night.

    Sandrinna, at Darkmoon¡¯s urging, after they had eavesdropped on the adventurers, collected her remaining monsters and withdrew down the new tunnel, her Kobolds having to go on all fours. She also formed a new water filled tunnel beneath it for the benefit of her creatures. Making their way slowly downhill, Sandrinna and Darkmoon attempted to flee.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary decided that it was time for her to verify her dreams, her new knowledge. And to learn just how her new privileges worked. So, here she was heading to the university. Luckily there weren¡¯t many people around as she made her way to the library, with a bag full of paper.

    She sauntered into the university library, feeling decidedly out of place, and regally ignoring the surprised looks she was certain were being directed at her. She sat down and organised the notes she had made about her most recent inspirations regarding stingrays, barracuda, squid, and of course octopi. She glanced at the notebook she had filled with her understanding of the genetic and physical maps of two species of octopi, before dropping it on the terminal¡¯s desk.

    Mary booted up the library¡¯s terminal, and she used her new passwords to access the restricted files. She couldn¡¯t prevent herself from smiling broadly as a new world of information opened up to her. As she lost herself in her research, she never even realized, that just six months before all this would have bored her to tears, besides having been incomprehensible.

    Daniel Hunter had assumed the young girl was delivering the folio she was carrying to one of the students. But then she settled down at one of the computer terminals. He headed in her direction to verify that she had the right to use his systems. He smiled with relief when he saw the access badge the girl was wearing. He was about to return to his post when he noted the picture of the octopus on the screen. Grinning he decided to use her to tease his friend Cas.

    Dr Cassiopeia Merrow smiled ruefully when Daniel Hunter rolled into the miniscule cupboard that served her as an office.

    Daniel, somewhat breathlessly, leaned against the doorjamb of her office. ¡°Hey Cas, do you know the kid messing with your Octopus data?¡±

    Cas sat up, ¡°What kid? That data is restricted to researchers and students.¡±

    ¡°Hey, come on, I¡¯ll show you, just follow me,¡± smirked Daniel.

    Cass sighed in resignation, but deciding that it was easier to follow her exasperating misnamed friend. As they walked up behind the young girl, Cas noted with some exasperation that the stranger was scanning a gene map whilst referring to a notebook and adding the occasional note. The girl was obviously deep in her thoughts and hadn¡¯t noticed them.

    Cas looked down at the girl¡¯s the open notebook, blinking, she then checked out the other meticulous notes and sketches the girl had spread about.

    ¡°That is some very interesting work you have there Ms.¡±

    Mary almost jumped out of her skin when someone spoke from behind her back. She spun her chair around and rose to her feet. ¡°Um... Yeah, I ¨C erm ¨C I¡¯m finding that many creatures that make the seas their home are truly fascinating an¡¯ I want to know all ¡¯bout them.¡± She blurted.

    Cas looked up at the teenager, ¡°I¡¯m Dr Cas Merrow, and you are?¡±

    ¡°Um... My name¡¯s Mary, Mary Silvestre, and I¡¯m on the mentoring program for...¡± and Mary made a vague gesture towards the screen.

    ¡°Ah yes, you¡¯re the girl that produced that paper on stingray poisons. It looks like you know a fair bit more about marine biology. As I¡¯m in a bit of a hurry, do you mind if I ask Daniel to scan your work, so I can study it, and see where you are up to in my speciality.¡±

    Mary really saw no way to say no, despite the fact that she didn¡¯t really want all her ideas to be known. Reluctantly, she consented.

    * * *

    That evening Cas read through the girl¡¯s notebook and was impressed, whilst crude, her grasp of the facts were solid if unconventional. Cas had had to dig out some obscure online sources to verify some of the things Mary blithely asserted in her notes. Cas assumed Mary had access to some source of data that she and the university hadn¡¯t as yet located.

    The loose notes showed a wide-ranging mind, with a few scary ideas regarding genetic manipulation. Unconventional ideas that just might prove to be viable.

    Cas also recognised in the girl the potential to become one of those scientists that ignored everything when chasing a personal theory.

    So Dr Cassiopeia Merrow added herself to the girl¡¯s mentoring program. And she added the content of the notebook, and the somewhat disjointed notes to the girl¡¯s file.

 Chapter 13 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C SHARK¡¯S BANE ADVENTURERS¡¯ PARTY * * *

    Having learnt as much as they could, Sildanus and his friends decided to leave Blue Lagoon. They approached Altor about the possibility of him opening a inter temple gate to their home temple in Tarasand. They gratefully accepted the discount he offered them in return for delivering two letters.

    The first letter they had to deliver was straightforward as it was for the high priest of their home temple. The second would require some travel on their part. They decided to visit the local Adventurer¡¯s Guild office to check the news and to see if they could pick up a quest that would take them in that direction.

    Before they left to deliver the letter, Froomar decided to check with Cartem, his favourite armourer to see about repairing the circular holes in his armour.

    Emerging from the submerged part of Tarasand Froomar made his way to the metalworkers quarter. It was impossible to miss; just the smell of hot iron and the clanging of hammers beating on iron announcing his arrival.

    He found Cartem sharing a pint with his apprentice while they waited for a sword blade to get hot enough to work. ¡°Morning, lazing about bas usual?¡± joked Froomar.

    Cartem spluttered with indignation, ¡°What do you mean, lazing? It¡¯s you adventurers that laze about all day, not hard working smiths like us.¡±

    Froomar grinned with amusement, ¡°So this is how you work hard is it, leaning against your anvil and quaffing ale.¡±

    Cartem elevated his nose and replied, ¡°We are appreciating good dwarven craftsmanship. Silver Cliff Ale is second to none, as everyone knows.¡±

    Froomar hauled out his damaged armour and laid it on a convenient workbench. ¡°You know this armour you said was unbeatable, well it had an encounter with some fish and came of second best. Can you fix it?¡±

    Cartem spluttered in indignation, ¡°Fix it? Fix it? ¡¯Course I can fix it, I can fix anything.¡±

    Putting his empty tankard down on his anvil, Cartem moved over to inspect Froomar¡¯s damaged armour. ¡°What on Parthia did this? I¡¯ve never seen anything like it,¡± he asked Froomar.

    Froomar promptly launched into a highly embroidered tale of his exploits. All Cartem the dwarf heard was lampreys with mithril teeth, enough teeth to cut ten centimetre holes in his enchanted armour.

    When Froomar came out of his story telling trance, he remembered Altor¡¯s amusement at the dungeon¡¯s observation, ¡®no need to attack the tin can¡¯.

    ¡°On second thoughts Cartem, how much would you give me for that armour and could you design something a bit lighter that still gave good protection but allowed greater ease of movement?¡±

    Cartem was recalled to reality by this challenge, after some haggling he agreed to have the new armour ready by the end of the week.

    * * *

    Whilst he was present at the Guild Sildanus arranged to have a meeting with the local Guild Master. He sought permission to set up a branch of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild on the underwater hill he and his party had found. He had precedent on his side, though he did have some difficulty as his proposed dungeon town would only cater to under sea dwellers.

    Tarasand being the town that it was facilitated his task when he sought to recruit someone to build a tavern in his propose settlement. He was sure that this tavern could be turned into an inn, and if not, once the town was in existence, an inn was sure to follow. It took him several hours, but he was able to gain the backing he needed to found a dungeon town to service the needs of adventurers who wished to challenge Blue Lagoon Dungeon.

    * * *

    By the time the Shark¡¯s Bane party left Tarasand to escort an undersea merchant caravan, and incidentally deliver Altor¡¯s other letter, the news of fish that grew mithril teeth was already making the rounds of dwarven communities all over Parthia.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C THE PIRATES * * *

    Vinculus the Red sat back in his comfortable chair. He leered at the scared looking scantily clad slave girl who filled his tumbler with the finest rum. He watched her scurry out of the room, frantically dodging the grasp of the guard at the door. He gave the guard a thumbs up and they both laughed out loud.

    He gazed into the depths of his glass and grinned in anticipation. He was satisfied with the progress of his plans. The fleet was nearly ready; the three mercenary companies were present and eager to do their part. And then there were the two bands of adventurers. They were salivating at the thought of mithril and other treasures. And the icing on the cake was the clan of sharkmen who had agreed to accompany him on his raid. He frowned briefly when he remembered the meticulous contract the legalistically minded sharkmen had insisted on.

    Vinculus took a gulp of his rum and grinned. He was sure of his mage, the greedy so and so was still one of the best despite his growing addiction for curtrose. With the man¡¯s magic he would easily overwhelm that dungeon and enslave it. That would give him a really secure base with near infinite resources. He would be the next Emperor of the sea realms.

    Down near the docks, in the Axe In Hand, Faldadazar Flintnose rubbed his hands with glee; he couldn¡¯t believe their luck. This was truly a marvellous opportunity, let that damn pirate conquer that dungeon, killing and enslaving whoever they wanted. While the pirates were doing the fighting, and dying, he and his brothers would find those mithril producing fish, become famous, and wealthy past compare.

    In a sea cave not far from Port Salvage Sharkspawn checked the payment he had received from Vinculus and addressed his band, ¡°we are contracted for twenty days. We will fulfil our contract to the letter. We scout for the drylanders and maintain an escort for their ships. We will not fight for them; we do not have to protect any of the ships except for Vinculus¡¯ own. Our services end if four sharks or two of us should die. We have not been contracted to enter the dungeon, so, unless it is overwhelmed we won¡¯t.¡±

    Sharkspawn and his band didn¡¯t pay any attention to the small fish swimming nearby, and they were unaware that their mission briefing had been overheard.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary, in her dolphin avatar, danced joyfully amongst the waves of the ocean just outside her lagoon. She was happy that she would soon be able to rid her ocean of more pirates and incedentally increase the size of her nascent merchant fleet.

    The other dolphins who made their home in her dungeon joined her. They had a grand time one and all.

    * * *

    The following day she conferred with Trisha and they refined their plans on how to deal with the forthcoming pirate invasion. Trisha was very happy to know the sharkmen wouldn¡¯t enter the dungeon leaving the way clear for the lampreys. Their spies had confirmed that the ships had plain wooden bottoms, so hopefully their lampreys would have an easy time. Not that they were counting on that.

    Plans laid Trisha asked Mary if she would consider appointing a Voice. That led to lengthy explanations as to what a Voice was and what a dungeon had to do in order to appoint one.

    Mary allowed that this would be a good idea as it would allow Trisha more time to attend to her, or should that be their dungeon. She then considered her locals one by one before rejecting them, then she had a bizarre idea, she looked at it from all sides and started sniggering uncontrollably.

    Trisha had a feeling that she wouldn¡¯t like what Mary was finding so amusing. ¡°What!¡±

    ? I will appoint Alessandrina. ? Stated Mary and resumed sniggering.

    ¡°Who¡¯s Alessandrina?¡± Trisha racked her brains and was unable to put a face to the name.

    ? She¡¯s always visiting me when I¡¯m doing anything in your fake dungeon. ?

    ¡°Wha...!¡± then an image surfaced, an enthusiastic energetic little half-elf with masses of curly sea-green hair. ¡°But... But, she¡¯s a child, and a half-elf, she could remain a child for years!¡±

    ? Yes, all the better, she¡¯ll be around for a long time, better yet she listens, and I like her. ? more sniggers, ? And just think of Danilus and Altor¡¯s faces when they have to listen to a child. ?

    Mary switched her focus to her decoy dungeon and sure enough it was full of children, many were recently arrived sea sprites.

    ? Good morning kids, having fun? Alessandrina dear, will you be my Voice. ?

    ¡°Y-yes Mary ¨C erm, Voice...¡± blurted Alessandrinna.

    ? Excellent. Brace yourself. ? And Mary started the ritual that would bind Alessandrinna to her as her Voice. Mary added a little bonus for Alessandrinna to discover at a later date.

    The other children watched the light show with fascination then scattered to tell their parents and friends while Mary and Trisha brought their Voice up to date on their plans. Mary advised Alessandrinna that she need keep no secrets from her parents, but to just let them know what was supposed to be private information.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C HELL¡¯S MOUTH AND SANDRINNA * * *

    Somewhat apprehensively, Hell¡¯s Mouth watched the comprehensive sacking of the territory he had ceded to the lost soul. He was very glad that the adventurers seemed to be fixated on his decoy. So far, his plan was working, and possibly he would have enough time to make himself impregnable. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t think that was likely, nor did he believe he would be able to hide from those adventurers.

    Their persistence was deeply worrying. It had been days now, and the adventurers were still camped out in his former entrance cavern. His decoy was very sensibly vacating, that was annoying, but he couldn¡¯t blame her. He was delighted to receive confirmation that it was possible for a dungeon core to relocate.

    As the adventurers seemed determined to end his decoy, Hell¡¯s Mouth decided that he would also have to relocate. But he wasn¡¯t going to risk his precious core to the surface world.

    As a first step, Hell¡¯s mouth decided to move the entrance of his dungeon once again, despite the momentarily increased risk of discovery. He just had to gain as much distance between himself and the decoy as possible, hopefully while she retained the adventurers attention.

    * * *

    As for Sandrinna, she was listening to her boss Kobold. He had proved himself to be a cunning defender. With Darkmoon¡¯s agreement, she implemented the plan he had outlined. She sent most of her monsters back to defend the maze, both to buy time and to hopefully gain some mana to facilitate their escape. She ordered her boss to save what he could if things went really badly, and to withdraw as soon as she managed to open a new entrance to the surface at a distance sufficient to allow them a good chance of survival.

    Sandrinna was more than impressed, she had used some of her hoarded mana to heal and repair all her defenders, then she granted her boss Kobold a name.

    ? ... my valiant defender I name you Erekos? ... ?

    Erekos? thanked his mistress and was seized by a sudden longing to own a black sword.

    ¡®Craven my non-existent ass, my Kobolds are anything but craven,¡¯ she thought to herself as she watched her defenders leave to prepare for the desperate battle to come.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C CREEVAR¡¯S KILLERS * * *

    The members of Creevar¡¯s Killers were feeling frustrated, they had this dungeon to kill, and they knew the pathetic thing was cowering at the end of the miserable frustrating maze that was giving them so much trouble. So far they had lost one full day, and not made any significant progress. The small size of the tunnels only allowed them to proceed in single file, and they were unable to stand upright whist traversing them.

    All they had encountered so far were traps and vermin, but as they had found, even vermin could be dangerous when Horaxanna was unable to taunt them. They had settled on Horaxanna in the lead with Zashaan at her shoulder checking for the plentiful traps. They had quickly discovered that if Zashaan took the lead she suffered constant attacks. With Horaxanna in front there were no attacks only traps.

    Then came Sreecator their healer followed by Warminor. Harrassan brought up the rear, where he was constantly under attack.

    * * *

    The second day of their assault on the nameless dungeon started better for Creevar¡¯s Killers, they quickly traversed the mapped section and pushed on. Then they became complacent.

    Erekos? smiled grimly when he saw that the adventurers had missed one of his traps, one of the ones that had to be triggered by a defender, maybe just maybe. In any case he detailed two of his remaining warriors to take the jackals and raid their camp, maybe they¡¯d think twice about attacking his people and their queen if their means of crossing the desert were reduced.

    ¡®Yes! They missed the ceiling trap, wait... wait... Now!¡± and Erekos? triggered the trap. Preceded by a few grains of sand, a large block of stone dropped from the ceiling blocking the tunnel and splitting the party in two, or rather three. Warminor started to jump forward when he felt the sand dropping but was unable to get clear of the trap. And then assorted vipers, scorpions and spiders covered his head and shoulders. It was too much, too sudden and even Sreecator was unable to provide sufficient help. Warminor died. The influx of life energy almost overwhelmed Sandrinna.

    ? congratulations you have earned the title ¡°Giantkiller¡± as your first kill was an Elite adventurer ?

    Horaxanna had to maintain guard to the front as one of the Kobolds kept popping up to launch the odd arrow. Zashaan was able to deal with the assorted giant insects and snakes. Sreecator took Warminor¡¯s memorystone. ¡°We will raise you my friend, you will live again, this I swear on Holy Creevar¡¯s name.¡±

    Sandrinna shook herself out of her stupor and absorbed Warminor¡¯s belongings. Then she used the unexpected treasure of energy to tunnel out into the open a good ten kilometres from her majestic cave entrance.

    * * *

    Avor and Essa had spent the entire day jumping at shadows. They really didn¡¯t like spending time near a source of water, and thus they were not taken by surprise when the two Kobolds attacked the camp with the help of two jackals. They each grabbed their favourite camel and bolted out into the desert. They were able to collect a further camel that managed to escape from the cave.

    The two Kobolds destroyed what they could, killed three camels and withdrew back to the maze carrying the spoils of their raid.

    Then they received the order to withdraw. Fifteen minutes later the maze was clear of defenders. It took Creevar¡¯s killers considerably longer to reunite, extricate Warminor¡¯s body and return to the remains of their camp. Much cursing ensued. This did produce their wary camel mounted guides.

    Harrassan blessed Creevar for finding them such a dependable pair of guides.

    That night Harrassan woke suddenly, the dungeon had withdrawn its domain. A quick exploration found an empty series of caves and a maze guarded by easily avoided traps leading to an empty chamber. The dungeon had fled!

    Harrassan vowed that they would be back to avenge this insult.

 Chapter 14 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C BLUE LAGOON¡¯S VOICE * * *

    Alessandrina came to herself outside the fascinating storybook dungeon. She was sitting cross-legged under a coconut palm and her head felt stuffed. She looked around finding herself alone, though she knew she would never be truly alone again. She could dimly sense Mary¡¯s domain, not well, not anywhere as clearly as Trisha, but she could sense it. She knew where her parents were, where the pest was. It was special.

    She rose to her feet with a huge smile on her face. It dimmed slightly when she realized that she would shortly be confronting her parents and high priest Danilus. She licked her lips before trotting towards the lagoon.

    She waded into the warm waters of the lagoon before diving in. She drew in a breath of water, activating her gills. Then she swam towards home, keeping her eyes open to take in all the marvels she came across. Many all the more marvellous due to her newly gained knowledge of them.

    She emerged from the lagoon within sight of the castle and trotted towards the front entrance. She slowed to a walk as she crossed the drawbridge. She waved a greeting to the guard on duty, not even noticing his resigned look at the trail of salt water and wet sand she left in her wake.

    Alessandrina ducked into her parent¡¯s apartment and found them with her little brother, the little pest Marossino. They were obviously waiting for her. She realized that the gig was up! She licked her lips nervously.

    ¡°Well Alessandrina, I believe you have something to tell us?¡± asked her mother.

    Uh oh! Her full name, that meant trouble. Alessandrina glanced down at her bare toes then glanced up through her lashes. ¡°Um... I¡¯m Mary, that is the dungeon¡¯s Voice.¡± And she smiled hopefully at her parents.

    Rhondaa dropped into her usual comfortable armchair like a puppet that had its strings cut. She buried her face in her hands. Viriaathos drew a deep breath, ¡°Did Mary Silvestre say why she chose you Drina?¡± he asked.

    Alessandrina maintained her hopeful smile and replied to her father. ¡°She said she liked me, and unlike many I listened,¡± her smile wavered. ¡°And also ¨C that she wanted to see the faces of ¨C umm...¡± she trailed off as her father yanked at his sea-green hair in frustration.

    ¡°Go on please Drina, who¡¯s faces?¡± snapped her father.

    ¡°Umm... well, Danilus¡¯ and Altor¡¯s mainly ... but, but I think she meant any...¡±

    ¡°Adults?¡± queried her mother.

    ¡°Yes!¡± confirmed the Voice happily, and then she glared at her helplessly giggling brother.

    ¡°So now you will be keeping secrets from us?¡±

    ¡°No, father, Mary told me to tell you anything you might want to know, but merely to tell you what things she would rather keep confi... confidat...¡±

    ¡°Confidential,¡± suggested Rhondaa.

    ¡°Yes!¡±

    Later, Rhondaa and Viriaathos went to see Danilus Oakborn.

    Danilus looked up from the paperwork on his desk as his two friends entered his office. ¡°So, are the rumours true, is your daughter the newly appointed Voice?¡± he asked. Rhondaa merely nodded mutely whilst Viriaathos answered in the affirmative.

    The three friends looked at each other for a few moments before Danilus sighed, ¡°I¡¯m sorry my friends, but I never expected something like this. I¡¯ll make sure your assignment here is made permanent.¡±

    Danilus shrugged. It was going to be difficult to see his godson¡¯s sister as the dungeon¡¯s Voice. He was unable to resist wondering why Mary couldn¡¯t be more conventional.

    ¡°By the way, Rhondaa, Viriaathos you should know that Vinculus the Red has gathered a fleet and plans to invade and sack our temple. Trisha advised me a week ago that Mary had discovered his preparations for the invasion. The pirates are gathering in Port Salvage, and I have just received confirmation from our temple spies.

    ¡°Hopefully the reinforcements we asked for will arrive before the pirates. Please tell your Drina that Mary can undertake the agreed upon alterations to our little castle as soon as possible, and ask her to tell us when and for how long we have to vacate.¡±

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C BLUE LAGOON * * *

    Mary was pondering the latest news from Port Salvage, ¡®A wyvern carrying a mage, beep, right have to hurry up the beep planned AA defences ... I¡¯d have liked a little beep longer but needs must!¡¯

    She dived into her studies and resumed her experimentations, dredging up facts that would have been long forgotten if not for her current situationhen Alessandrina contacted with Danilus¡¯ request she had another job to do, luckily she¡¯d put aside the mana needed for that little task.

    So, next day after making sure everyone had vacated the premises she lowered the whole thing prior to hightening the walls and tower enabling her to add a new floor. She also added a second tower complete with its own ballista. She modifed both to allow high angle fire against aerial targets.

    After checking with Drina she gifted her with two ¨C frankly adorable ¨C savannah kittens. The girl needed bodyguards after all and the System had lumbered her with Cats as dungeon monsters.Stolen story; please report.

    The temple folk moved back into their enlarged home twenty hours after their tempory eviction, then came the ¨C but they followed me home, can I keep them ¨C moment. That passed with only a bit of headshaking and a heartfelt wish that the cats would prove effective ratcatchers.

    * * *

    Vinculus the Red stood proudly on the quarterdeck of his flagship watching as his small fleet put out to sea. He grinned with pride; his magnificent Red Terror with its three tall masts was easily the largest ship in the fleet. The other four ships were only two masted brigs, but they still cut an impressive figure as they crested the waves on leaving the harbour of Port Salvage. Soon Freedom isle sank below the horizon as the pirate fleet made its way South.

    Three days later Viniculus hosted his captains and the leaders of the two adventurer parties to finalize his plans. The four brigs would circle the atolls and start their attack at dawn the next day. They would sieze the well known native village, and the isle it was built on, then using longboats they would assault the new town. One longboat would be sent to sieze the temple after Slasher the ork mage had killed any defenders that might be present.

    Meanwhile the Red Terror would sail in from the North and force the channel.

    All were agreed and withdrew to their ships to carry out their part of the plan, most of them already planning on what to do with the spoils and even gambling with the ¨C as yet ¨C nonexistant treasure.

    Mary grumbled to herself as she watched the fleet, she just had to figure out a way to get her spies aboard potentially hostile ships. Alessandrina was duly informed of the pirate fleet¡¯s progress and asked to warn her parents and Danilus.

    Sure enough, at dawn, the four pirate ships entered Mary¡¯s domain. She soon ascertained their probable location and held off her attack hoping to be able to sink these where she could salvage them. She kept an eye on the Red Terror but it did not enter her domain.

    As the pirates landed on the deserted island that was the former home of the arquipelagoe¡¯s inhabitants, Mary¡¯s lampreys moved in on the defenceless ships.

    The next occurance was the appearance of the pirate mage. Slasher was riding his wyvern at low altitude. As he passed over the Temple the two ballista fired, while the priests maintained a shield that warded off the ork¡¯s fireballs. One of the ballista scored a direct hit on the wyvern. It didn¡¯t kill it but it caused the poor creature to skim the surface of the lagoon.

    Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Mary instructed Pete and Shirley to release the insulating spell they had been maintaining for her reverse lightning experiment. The content of dozens of her electric barracuda and rays smashed through the wyvern and its passenger. Slasher somehow managed to survive but once in the lagoon he quickly succomed to the attention of the gathered barracuda and stingrays.

    Seeing the results, Mary decided to return to the drawing board.

    To Mary¡¯s surprise the four ships succomed to the lampreys, she had expected the pirates to have learnt something from descriptions of the previous sinkings. To her irritation the stranded pirates and adventurers surrendered to the recently reinforced temple guards.

    Then she had to watch as the Red Terror sailed away. She sulked for several days.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C AVOR, ESSA AND CREEVAR¡¯S KILLERS * * *

    Harrassan was delighted with his native guides, they had been able to take them across the sea of sand at the narrows, and they had been able to add to his understanding of the giant sand worms. Thanks to them they had been able to get Warminor to a shrine of Creevar. They had used the shrine¡¯s gate to get to the temple in time to raise Warminor. He had asked them to wait two weeks for his party as he wanted to use them again when he returned to kill that dungeon.

    Avor and Essa watched the members of Creevar¡¯s Killers disappear into the shrine, Avor clutched the purse Harrassan had given them, whilst Essa held the leads of their three camels. They looked at each other and scuttled off into the desert to hide and plan.

    They counted the contents of the purse several times as they found it hard to believe their eyes. Fifty gold imperials! Fifty imperials and three camels, they determined to wait for longer than two weeks for such generous patrons. They divided the imperials and secreted a few coins here and there, they placed two silver guilders and twenty copper bits in the purse and were satisfied that it looked much the same as when it had been filled with the smaller gold coins.

    They then cautiously returned to Arsouk, and stabled their camels. Then they sought out the temple of Zoratus the sage. They dropped an offering of a silver guilder in the plate on the altar in full view of the priests and awaited attention. They asked for a teaching memory crystal each as they wished to read and write, also they inquired if there was anything available that would allow them to master tradetalk.

    The priest, amused at these two scruffy urchins¡¯ ambitions told them that the crystal they sought cost two gold nobles and the temple also sold teaching crystals for tradetalk for a gold apiece or two if reading and writing was to be included.

    Avor and Essa looked at each other, Essa nodded once and Avor shrugged one shoulder. ¡°So eight gold nobles...¡± said Essa ¡°... for both with reading and writing?¡± concluded Avor.

    The priest smiled slightly condescendingly, ¡°Yes.¡±

    Avor and Essa each produced two gold imperials and handed them to the astounded priest.

    Half an hour later the twins left the temple with heads that felt overstuffed. Remembering what their father had always told them went in search of Frazd the banker. There after verifying Frazd¡¯s terms and conditions and carefully reading his rather linear contracts, they startled that worthy man by investing forty-four gold imperials in his mid-risk investment portfolio.

    Feeling a lot happier at no longer having more gold on their persons than they had ever seen in their lives, they hired a room for the week at one of Arsouk¡¯s more reputable inns. That only cost them fourteen copper bits and included breakfast.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Sunday evening, Mary was lying in her bed playing with two lustrous pearls, while remembering her weekend, and her new friend, who had gifted her with the oysters that had contained the pearls. And whose name was so complex. She guessed it would translate as something along the lines of: Joyful dancer over waves crossed with a hint of irrepressible jokester. She decider that she would call him Dancer for short.

    Now, there was this added complication, she mused as she gazed thoughtfully at the faded blue rectangle hovering in front of her nose, advising her that she had achieved a class. What the beep was an Oceanic Ranger subclass Scholar anyway and why was she lvl 4.

    As frustrating as she found it, that enforced beeping certainly did wonders to clear up her patterns of speech. Somehow, despite having no proof, she was certain that whoever or whatever was behind those beep blue screens was to blame.

    Monday came around all too soon, and that meant school, and school unfortunately meant Denver. Denver who thought he was so funny when all he was an absolute pain in the beep ass. Today the little beep decided to pick on her again. This time he tried to overturn her full lunch tray. Somehow she was able to dodge his rush and she was unable to resist tripping him. By accident!Everyone could see it was an accident!

    The room burst into laughter as Denver fell face first in Williams¡¯ lunch. Williams the school¡¯s star quarterback was not amused.

 Chapter 15

    Danilus Oakborn was meeting with Altor Seaswept and his new captain of the guard Rafael Twiceborn in the unexpected but welcome new meeting room that had appeared under his office. It contained a deep underwater tunnel that linked his castle to the underwater half of the temple out in the lagoon. Also fully one third of the room formed a raised pool where Altor was currently resting comfortably.

    Rafael was feeling comfortable for the first time in over a decade, the fortified fazenda felt homely and his room had a fully equipped functioning bathroom. Well without hot water but here in the tropics he could do without.

    ¡°So Captain do you have recommendations in regards to our little castle? And congratulations on capturing those pirates and their allies,¡± stated Danilus.

    ¡°On the whole this fortress is quite adequate for local conditions, its probably already a bit larger than a site as remote as this requires,¡± replied Rafael.

    Altor interrupted at this point, ¡°you are aware that Mary is really unhappy about something, she hasn¡¯t been around lately and the sprites are all extremely tense.¡±

    ¡°I have not had as much contact with her as you so no I haven¡¯t noticed,¡± Danilus worried, ¡°What reason does she have to be unhappy, do you think she¡¯s learnt something we should know.¡±

    ¡°From something Trish said I suspect she¡¯s sulking.¡±

    Rafael cocked his head, ¡°Mary?¡±

    ¡°Mary Silvestre, she¡¯s the intelligence behind the Blue Lagoon Dungeon.¡± Clarified Altor.

    Danilus winced then drew a deep breath and went to the door, then he asked the guard to find Viriaathos or Rhondaa and ask them to please ask if the Voice would attend their meeting.

    While they waited Rafael mused, ¡®I wonder if Mary is another expat? Maybe I¡¯ve found another one like me, wonder if she¡¯s from the US? Poor thing ending up as an immobile gem.¡¯

    It was nearly ten minutes later that the meeting room¡¯s door opened by itself and a solemn unsmiling Alessandrina walked into the room. The door closed itself behind her.

    ¡°It¡¯s taken you lot long enough to notice something¡¯s up. What do you want to know.¡± Said the Voice.

    Rafael blinked startled at the presence of a young girl in a meeting of the temple heads.

    Danilus observed his captain¡¯s startlement and introduced the newcomer, ¡°Captain, this is Alessandrina the Dungeon¡¯s Voice and the daughter of two of your guards, I believe you can guess which two.

    ¡°Drina, please can you tell us what¡¯s upsetting Mary.¡±

    ¡°Mary is mad because you captured the pirates and the adventurers that were helping them and gave them promises that she believes means that most of them will be free soon.¡±

    ¡°But I did that to save lives,¡± stated Rafael.

    Drina gave him a long look, ¡°Next time ask! Mary really doesn¡¯t like pirates.¡±

    ¡°I am in charge of the defence of the temple and settlement and I judged it better to remove the pirates without having to resort to a fight,¡± explained Rafael.

    ¡°You are allowed to defend the twin temple and the settlement and fort, keep out of the Spirit Dolphin Inn and do not meddle in Mary¡¯s affairs. The pirates and their allies would have been dealt with with no risk to your people.

    ¡°Mary really doesn¡¯t like pirates and she¡¯s told me why. The silly tales and romances are so wrong about them.

    ¡°If any of the ones you released should ever set foot in our domain they will be killed regardless of why they have come.¡± Concluded the Voice and left, the door opening and then closing itself behind her.

    Danilus raised an eyebrow at Rafael.

    ¡°Maybe I should have talked with you first but my experience of pirates suggested...¡±

    ¡°... that they¡¯re murderous thugs and better off elsewhere,¡± concluded Altor.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    ¡°I would have agreed with you Rafael, I keep forgetting we¡¯re living in a dungeon, a dungeon that doesn¡¯t seem to be capable of showing mercy to anyone she truly dislikes,¡± Danilus stated. ¡°We really must learn to make more use of her Voice, hard as it is for me to see Drina as anything but a little girl.¡±

    * * *

    Mary had used Slasher¡¯s life force to further evolve Pete and Shirley then gifted them with a copy of his spell books and left them to their own devices before fully desending into her sulks.

    A couple of days later she slowly came out of her sulks, helped by being able to vent, even if it was through her willing accomplice.

    That Wyvern was fascinating, maybe with what little she seemed to know about aquatic dinosaurs she could create a hybrid. Mmm... what if she tried... maybe... yesss...

    Trisha was actually relieved to see signs of Mary reverting to old patterns of behaviour as she stopped sulking. So she let her be as no new threats appeared to be on the horizon. And anyway this new monster looked more traditional somehow, big, lots of teeth, long neck. It looked like some kind of seagoing variant of the wyvern.

    But what on Parthia was she doing with those rats, her explanation that she needed spies was all very well, rats were everywhere after all but what did she mean about getting the idea from Fritz Leiber¡¯s stories of Lankhmar.

    * * *

    The Red Terror returned to Port Salvage accompanied by a coterie of flying fish. Vinculus the Red had to deal out some significant damage to a few of his resentful followers in order to retain his position. Luckily for him most of his more dangerous potential rivals hadn¡¯t returned.

    A few feelers allowed him to learn that the stupid priests were handing over his men to the magistrates of the town of Drakoton on the island of Jarvoon. A few coins and most would be free, he would even pay them to hang a couple of the captains and assorted other troublemakers.

    Vinculus decided that things could have been far worse. He still intended to get his hands on that dungeon however.

    * * *

    The Pyromaniacs and Faldadazar and his brothers were out on the streets of Drakoton almost as soon as they arrived, after all they were registered adventurers and their only crime was to be caught in a dungeon. They were released with apologies!

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Hell¡¯s Mouth and Arbogar listened to Bjitgjifgnb¡¯s report. Their magic enabled them to create an accurate map of the area using Bjitgjifgnb¡¯s memory. After they dismissed the imp they consulted together.

    They concurred that they would have to move north though luckily they wouldn¡¯t have to move to the other side of the mountain chain as they had planned. Moving over one hundred kilometres however was not easy to contemplate or do. It would take years of creating caves and passages and collapsing them behind them to prevent being followed.

    Reluctantly Hell¡¯s Mouth created a rather skimpy new level to the north west of his current location and then he and Arbogar move their home into it and rested regaining manna slowly so as to be ready to do it again.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1.1 * * *

    When Sandrinna realized that Erekos? was ready to evolve she consulted Darkmoon and they decided to delay their travels especially as Sandrina had discovered hints of water deep under the mountains. So Sandrinna created a mid sized cave and coaxed the water up to form an admittedly rather feeble spring. Sandrinna was sorry her expedient underground canal had failed a few days earlier.

    Their method of travel was slow and very risky but they were willing to gamble to avoid the dungeon killers. That Azurea was their enemy caused the dungeon to feel lost and alone despite the presence of her loyal minions and friends.

    Erekos? when informed of his possible evolution was concerned at what it might cost his queen, Sandrinna reassured him that she was planning to rest at this location for a while and the cost would be acceptable, she also promised him she would name all her remaining Kobolds when they arrived at wherever they decided to settle.

    Erekos? grew slightly, his skin paled slightly and his eyes gained a protective inner lid that allowed him to tolerate sunlight. The biggest change was that he grew leathery wings.

    Sandrinna studied Erekos?¡¯s eyes and added that little feature to her remaining Kobolds.

    A week later they were on their weary way south again, claiming and releasing a thin trail of domain so she and all her minions could safely travel was as exhausting and slow as ever. Now at least they had the added security of an aerial scout.

    Another week of travel left them close(ish) to several small settlements scattered around a small winding river. So they backtracked slightly to where Sandrinna had sensed a small lake under the mountains. With evident relief the voyagers burrowed into the mountain intent on creating a new home.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    It would seem Tuesday meant a few days of no school the principal having taken an unreasonably dim view of affairs in the dining hall. A tour of the city looking at jewellers led her to one her newfound senses liked. So she went in and homed in on the old guy behind the counter on the left.

    ¡°Hi, do you undertake commissions? Do you buy pearls?¡±

    Henry Ritter glanced up at his unexpected customer, ¡°Yes and it depends on the pearl.¡±

    Mary removed the velvet bag that contained her pearls and took out the smaller of the two and showed it to Henry.

    Henry was startled, it was a lovely white 14mm pearl. ¡°That certainly looks like something we would buy.¡±

    She placed it on the counter and removed the second, her treasure, the 18mm wonder that seemed to have a very slight blueish tint. ¡°Could you produce a nice gold necklace to hold this, possibly encased in an open filigree mesh or basket in exchange for that one?¡±

    Henry agreed, he showed Mary various designs, discussed quality and promised to have the necklace ready on Friday.

 Chapter 16

    Marigold was dreaming, she was dreaming that she was approaching an elegant becolumed palace deep under the ocean. She was swept into the liberally decorated palace past hordes of beings, mostly mermen and tritons but there were members of all the sapient races she knew and even a few she didn¡¯t.

    She was carried into a throne room by the current she found herself in and deposited in front a fish tailed merman, no a fish tailed God. Ocidon!

    Ocidon gave her a crooked smile and chuckled at her confusion.

    ¡°It would seem I owe you an explanation and even a very small apology as my ally Mary Silvestre has marked one and a half hundred assorted pirates and mercenaries of diverse races as dungeon foes and vowed to attack them should she ever get a chance to so do.¡±

    Marigold felt shock straighten her back, ¡°What!¡±

    ¡°As for how they escaped her clutches when she had them dead to rights, the fault lies with my priests and temple guards who followed established procedures and granted them their lives in return for their surrender. Unfortunately the magistrates they handed them over to released most of them in exchange for gold.¡±

    Marigold blinked confused.

    ¡°Oh yes, Mary Silvestre also marked twelve adventurers for the crime of accompanying the pirates into her domain.¡± Ocidon smiled broadly, ¡°and when she discovers all those who released the ones she marked, and she will sooner than you might think, she will kill them too.¡±

    ¡°But she can¡¯t, dungeons don¡¯t act like that! They just don¡¯t it¡¯s just too dangerous,¡± protested Marigold in a bit of a panic. ¡°Anyway how can she discover something like that?¡±

    ¡°Well that¡¯s my fault. I really liked one of her creations and changed them to become normal creatures and spread them over many of my seas. Mary Silvestre found them and learned how to reclaim a measure of influence over them without remaking them dungeon creatures.¡±

    ¡°But fish can¡¯t...¡± murmured Marigold in shock.

    ¡°True, but if everything goes well Parthia will soon have another intelligent race, especially designed to be sneaky and ideal spies. And with what she now knows they will not be restricted to her dungeon. And they will be Mine.¡± Ocidon beamed with pride and faded from Marigold¡¯s dream.

    Marigold woke cursing her luck and cast an exasperated prayer to whatever deities had the wellbeing of dungeons in mind and cursed again when the System informed her that the two deities handling the affairs of dungeons had received her prayer. Right to work, first warn all the companions that belonged to the league then to get in touch with Trisha.

    * * *

    Drina petted Joy and Pounce enjoying their purrs and soft fur before gingerly picking the deceased rat up by its tail and heading for the compost heap. On her way she passed her mother who grinned at her daughter¡¯s disgusted expression. ¡°Another one honey? Your two little babies are efficient and making themselves popular.¡±

    ¡°Yes Mom, I think it was Joy this time, Pounce usually eats their heads,¡± replied Drina. ¡°Um, don¡¯t you think they are rather large, I don¡¯t remember other kittens being as big.¡±

    Rhondaa gave her daughter a thoughtful look, ¡°Yesss, but they were a gift from the... Mary weren¡¯t they?¡± then she smiled widely, ¡°your father and I have had lots of people asking for kittens already, maybe you should speak with Mary or your two are going to overwhelmed by the demand.¡±

    Drina rolled her eyes, wrinkled her nose at the dead rat and continued on her way to the compost pile followed by her mother¡¯s laughter.

    Mary was taking a break from her Wyvern project, and working on her spies, rats she reckoned were found everywhere and would arouse little suspicion, also those stories of Lankmar¡¯s rats were giving her lots to think about, DNA was truly fascinating for an ambitious dungeon, she would have been humming if she could still hum.

    Trisha was irritated, but this time it was with Marigold. She¡¯d just had a talk with that pixie, what did she expect, Mary disliked pirates, she disliked slavers and that bunch were both. And how did Marigold expect her from preventing Mary from going after that scum! As for leaving the adventurers alone, Ha! They were worse than the pirates!

    Mary was unsurprised when Trisha told her how just about the whole bunch had already been turned loose, ? Yeah that was inevitable, the only way beep scum like tha¡¯ can prosper in an area like this is if powerful beep scumbags are protecting ¡®em for their own beep profits. ?Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    Mary decided to plant a barb in Danilus and co so she gave her voice some instructions and when queried regarding the kittens she sent back some images she remembered seeing on the web about savannah cats together with the thought, they¡¯re Savannahs, big and friendly.

    ? Hey Trish, you know of any shapeshifters we could get our hands on? ?

    Drina was just washing her hands when Mary contacted her. She looked at her sleeping kittens and shook her head ruefully then she went directly to uncle Danilus¡¯ office. She could see her message didn¡¯t go down well. She waited a second then waved and left, it was time for lessons. At least she now had two friends to ask for help when she didn¡¯t understand things.

    * * *

    Danilus Oakborn consulted with Viriaathos and Rhondaa and then convened a meeting of the leaders and other influential beings living in the Blue Lagoon. So Drina found herself being collected from her classroom to the envy of her peers by her father and joined her parents and Danilus in the fort¡¯s new conference room, also present were Altor, Blacksand and Silverstreek in the pool and the mayor Jaasoon Sunhigh and the captain of the temple guards Rafael Twiceborn.

    The news that Mary had learned what had happened in far off Drakoton within a day or at the most two after it had happened sobered the assembled company and brought the ghost of a smile to Drina¡¯s lips. Blacksand and Jaasoon Sunhigh were firmly in Mary¡¯s camp; Silverstreek didn¡¯t really care but sided with them out of a sense of comradeship. The others just wanted to soothe matters down.

    The Voice spoke; ¡°Mary Silvestre has marked them all as dungeon foes and will deal with them as soon as she can. As far as she is concerned the matter is closed, or will be soon.¡±

    Rafael shook his head and muttered something under his breath.

    The Voice looked at him and said, ¡°Do Hawaii and borderline psychopath mean anything to you?¡±

    Rafael winced, ¡°Yes, unfortunately.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Hell¡¯s Mouth watched the adventurers return and realized he had made another mistake when their priest detected his spy and banished it.

    Hurriedly Hell¡¯s Mouth drove a new tunnel to the North and West seeking to breach a new opening to the surface world so that he could collapse his original dungeon behind him. He fervently prayed for time.

    That¡¯s when Arbogar received Marigold¡¯s message about the pirates, mercenaries and adventurers that had been marked as dungeon enemies. Arbogar and Hell¡¯s Mouth were in agreement, if a dungeon designated someone an enemy then they were an enemy and would be treated as such.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1.1 * * *

    Creevar¡¯s Killers returned to Arsouk via a gate in Creevar¡¯s shrine ten days after they left. They quickly located their guides as the news of a pair of desert born urchins staying in Arsouk¡¯s second best inn was all over town.

    No sooner had Warminor spotted them than he embraced them with copious thanks. He offered to become their blood brother and offered them a purse. Avor and Essa looked at each other and nodded slightly followed by a slight shake of the head. The then looked at Warminor and Essa said ¡°brothers don¡¯t need...¡± and Evor finished ¡°... or want material rewards.¡±

    Warminor was touched and after another attempt put his purse away. The ceremony was quickly enacted and witnessed.

    Next day at dawn the party and their drovers cum guides left heading for the dungeon that had so frustrated them. They took the long route as they all decided to avoid the neck after having met that torpid sand worm previously.

    They arrived at an obviously deserted series of caverns but by the grace of Creevar, Sreecator detected and dispelled a skeletal bird that had been spying on them. With proof that a dungeon that used undead was near they set up camp, this time taking the advice of their native guides and began the search for the dungeon¡¯s new entrance.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    When Sandrinna happily carved out her new first level, not forgetting to put in some crawl ways for her Kobold defenders. After a few days rest she created her second level including an intricate maze of small tight passages, then found that she had to enlarge the passages slightly to allow for a proper flow of manna.

    She settled herself at the end of the maze and created a small apartment for Darkmoon. She still had the capacity to create a third level but decided to partially fulfil her promise to her Kobolds first so she named Erekos?¡¯s lieutenant Arjavh and the clan¡¯s shamaness Ermizhad. This triggered their evolution and she had two more winged Kobolds.

    Next at Darkmoon¡¯s insistence she added a pool deep in the first level and led a small stream through her floor and out of the entrance not caring where it went after that.

    They planned the planting of a few shrubs and herbs to act as treasure and scattered assorted creatures to serve as guardians.

    The second floor received a similar treatment but Erekos? was placed in charge of its defence with the understanding that Arjavh would take over when the third level was created.

    Darkmoon was dissatisfied with the available rewards and determined to scout around to see if he could find something better, or at least add to the diversity of potential rewards.

    Then he received Marigold¡¯s message about the pirates, mercenaries and adventurers that had been marked as dungeon enemies. He consulted with Sandrinna and after some fruitless tail chasing they dragged in Erekos?. They finally decided to disregard Marigold¡¯s suggestion; if someone marked as an enemy entered their dungeon then they would treat them as such.

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    Mary spent the remaining days of her suspension at the university¡¯s library where her research answered some questions she had and raised some others. It was frustrating; it was keeping her from her fishing.

    On Friday she picked up her new necklace and a check for more money than she had expected. When she first saw her necklace and Henry warned to be careful not to get it stolen something clicked. She stared at the necklace and felt a stirring in that energy she seemed to have in her mind, it linked with the necklace that seemed to shimmer and shift. She grinned, thanked Henry and put it round her neck.

 Not a chapter - Index of characters

    The Misplaced Dungeon Cast

    On Parthia

    MC:

    ? Mary Silvestre as a Human

    ??? Sixteen year old girl with anger management issues, a borderline psychopath

    ??? Due to ¨C currently ¨C one way link from Mary dungeon to Mary human her soul is regenerating nicely albeit not fully human. She is gaining an intuitive knowledge of biology especially marine biology and is gaining a store of manna.

    ??? Dancer ¨C Dolphin friend of Mary ¨C real name: something along the lines of joyful dancer over waves crossed with a hint of irrepressible jokester.

    ? Mary Silvestre as a Dungeon Core ¨C Blue Lagoon Dungeon ¨C Temple of Ocidon on Sea ¨C An oval lagoon ten kilometres by three

    ??? Affinities: Water 60% ¡ª Darkness 16% ¡ª Light 16% ¡ª Earth 8%

    ??? Avatar: Dolphin

    ??? Bound companion: Trisha the Sea Sprite

    ??? Voice: Alessandrina ¨C eleven-year-old enthusiastic energetic little half-sea elf with masses of sea-green hair ¨C owns two savannah cats Joy and Pounce.

    ??? Pete and Shirley ¨C rather large intelligent octopi ¨C Mary successfully created mages.

    ? Known relatives ¨C mama and Flip in Hawaii and auntie Vera in Fiji.

    Buried palace dungeon (planned decoy)

    ? Dimly illuminated via mirrors and using glass conduits.

    ? All stories are engraved murals done as a mangas.

    ? The entrance looks like the top room of a buried tower with the roof just breaking the surface.

    ? Entered via a half buried window with a fan of sand allowing easy access to the floor of.

    ? 1<sup>st</sup> level: A circular room ¨C Rapunzel.

    ? 2<sup>nd</sup> level: Four rooms partially submerged at high tide ¨C the Three Little Pigs.

    ? 3<sup>rd</sup> level: Cinderella (fur slippers) & Sleeping Beauty.

    ? 4<sup>th</sup> lever: Jack and the Beanstalk & Rumpelstiltskin.

    Residents of the Blue Lagoon Dungeon:

    ? Jaasoon Sunhigh ¨C Human ¨C Formerly known as harpoon guy ¨C chief of the former natives and mayor of Silverton.

    ? Silverstreek ¨C matriarch of the pod of dolphins currently living in the Blue Lagoon.

    Sea Sprites (Neap Tide Tribe):

    ? Sarisha the Matriarch ¨C Leader of the Neap Tide Tribe.

    ? Abalone the White ¨C An Elder, somewhat absent minded.

    ? Purple Murex ¨C An Elder.

    ? Dawnbright ¨C An Elder.

    ? Blacksand the voyager ¨C Sea Sprite scout ¨C owner of the Spirit Dolphin Inn.

    ? Lacenia the wild rover ¨C Adventurous, wide ranging mischief maker but loyal to her tribe.

    ? Varina the golden ¨C A somewhat vain but good hearted Sea Sprite ¨C likes the comforts of home ¨C teaches the children.

    Dungeon Companions League:

    ? Marigold ¨C dungeon pixie ¨C head of the league

    Shark¡¯s bane (adventurers party):This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    ? Sildanus ¨C merman ¨C

    ? Harmanus ¨C merman

    ? Massina ¨C mermaid ¨C mage

    ? Froomar ¨C triton ¨C the tank

    ? Drixia ¨C triton ¨C cleric and healer ¨C wife of Froomar

    Creevar¡¯s Killers:

    ? Harrassan ¨C human ¨C monk of the order of Creevar Explorer ¨C leader of the band ¨C uses spiked cestus.

    ? Sreecator ¨C human ¨C priest of Creevar ¨C Harrassan¡¯s brother

    ? Horaxanna ¨C dwarf female ¨C vain about her looks ¨C wears her hair plaited into a crown on her head, and plaits her beard with colourful ribbons. Uses subtle makeup and red lipstick. Uses a chainmail hauberk and hood under heavy plate and full helm. Wields a steel reinforced shield and one-handed battleaxe.

    ? Warminor ¨C human mage ¨C wears star spangled midnight blue mage robes

    ? Zashaan ¨C human female ¨C Scout and trap finder.

    ? Two young drovers (temp sort of members) ¨C dirty smelly cunning thirteen-year-old fraternal twins:

    ??? Avor ¨C human male ¨C short range telepathic with Essa.

    ??? Essa ¨C human female ¨C short range telepathic with Avor.

    Temple of Ocidon on Sea:

    ? Danilus Oakborn ¨C High Priest of the Temple.

    ? Bertina ¨C acolyte ¨C eccentric but popular young woman

    ? Faaron ¨C acolyte ¨C a bars brawler with a slightly flattened crooked nose.

    ? Sirvanus ¨C acolyte.

    ? Altor Seaswept ¨C Merman, itinerant priest of Ocidon.

    ? Rafael Twiceborn ¨C Captain of the guard ¨C a summoned hero that completed his task ten years back and is now just making a living.

    ? The Original inhabitants ¨C four guards, two husband and wife pairings plus families ¨C six servants including two couples ¨C one teacher and his wife and kids.

    ? Viriaathos (sea-elf) and Rhondaa (human) ¨C husband and wife ¨C temple guards.

    ??? Alessandrina ¨C Dungeon Voice and their eleven-year-old daughter ¨C owns two savannah cats Joy and Pounce.

    ??? Marossino ¨C eight year old imp of mischief with a tangled mop of sea-green hair.

    Temple of Ocidon in Garonmouth:

    ? The main statue of Ocidon in the temple has recently been changed by the God himself.

    ? Sanderson the Wise ¨C High Priest of the Temple.

    ??? Good at delegating, has a competent staff.

    ??? Tendency to feel nervous and uncertain in the presence of his God.

    ? Zorglub ¨C acolyte ¨C he of the hair raising ideas.

    ? Doxser ¨C acolytes ¨C an archivist.

    ? Star of Ocidon ¨C one of the temple¡¯s trading ships

    The Gods ( New Gods ):

    ? Mirabelarque: Chairbeing and leader of the New Gods

    ? Azurea, self declared Goddess of dungeons

    ??? Avatar, a tall slender woman with waist long blue hair and truly massive breasts.

    ? Delminia

    ? Feltax

    ? Creevar ¨C good at ferreting out secrets

    The Gods ( Old Gods ):

    ? Ocidon Earthshaker and God of the Deeps.

    ? Hel-Arlizzy former God of Dungeons ¨C greatly weakened ¨C has a fondness for majestic caverns ¨C He of the scaly tail

    ? Zoratus the sage

    Hell¡¯s Mouth dungeon (original):

    ? Hell¡¯s Mouth dungeon Core

    ??? Affinities: Darkness 90% ¡ª Remainder traces.

    ??? Starting monsters: Undead ¡ª Demons

    ??? Bound companion: Arbogar the wraith.

    ? Arbogar the wraith ¨C companion of the Hell¡¯s Mouth dungeon Core.

    ? Zarnjdfjgmn ¨C Incubus ¨C summoned.

    ? Bjitgjifgnb ¨C Imp ¨C summoned as a scout, likes to be known as Beejay.

    Hell¡¯s Mouth dungeon (decoy) ¨C will be (re)named by the locals when found:

    ? Relocated due South and is now located close (ish) to several small settlements scattered around a small winding river.

    ? Sandrinna ¨C dungeon core ¨C titled Giantkiller ¨C Formerly a young woman victim of a sadistic witch hunter.

    ??? Affinities: water 40% ¨C earth 30% ¨C air 15% ¨C life 12% ¨C infernal 3%

    ??? Starting monsters: Kobolds (can be modified for sunlight tolerance).

    ??? Bound companion: Darkmoon ¨C dungeon pixie.

    ? Erekos? ¨C Boss Kobold ¨C evolved, wings and sun tolerance ¨C desires a black sword.

    ? Arjavh ¨C Kobold lieutenant ¨C evolved as above.

    ? Ermizhad ¨C Kobold shamaness ¨C evolved as above.

    Garonmouth:

    ? A mid-sized prosperous trading town built on the mouth of the river Garon.

    ? Contains several temples one of which is dedicated to Ocidon (a solid almost overbuilt edifice with multiple spires).

    Adventurers Guild in Garonmouth.

    ? Sofos Ironfist ¨C The guild master ¨C An impressive looking dwarf with a long plaited white beard.

    ? Taron the Ravager ¨C Human ¨C In charge of training and security.

    ? Sarannas ¨C Human f ¨C Number two.

    ? Fingers Caracaa ¨C Human f ¨C Rogue ¨C accomplished spy and thief.

    ? Estgadon ¨C human ¨C Former Rogue now Priest of Hel-Arlizzy.

    ? Torgan the Black ¨C Head of the Stinging Hornets. Dungeon killer team ¨C included Evandor the mage ¨C all deceased.

    Arsouk:

    ? A small town built round an oasis about one days journey from the Skyscratch mountains near the centre of the continent or Duregar.

    ? Shrine of Creevar ¨C gates to temples of Creevar available to respected followers for a (hefty) fee.

    ? Temple of Zoratus the sage ¨C teaching crystals for sale, run from one to five gold nobles each.

    ? Frazd the banker ¨C Reputation for probity and rectitude ¨C services offered: hold valuables, for a modest monthly fee or three investment portfolios, Low, mid or high risk.

    ? The Songbird ¨C second best inn in town ¨C basic room for the week plus breakfast: fourteen copper bits.

    Archipelago of Frezzantel also known as the hundred islands:

    ? Drakoton ¨C chief town and port of the island of Jarvoon

    ??? An influential but corrupt crossroads of commerce.

    ? Port Salvage ¨C pirate town on Freedom isle:

    ??? Vinculus the Red ¨C human male ¨C exceedingly ambitious and cautious pirate leader.

    ????? Red Terror ¨C three tall masts ¨C Flagship.

    ??? Faldadazar ¨C dwarf ¨C he and his brothers form a party of adventurers.

    ??? The Pyromaniacs ¨C a party of adventurers with flexible morals.

    ??? Sharkspawn ¨C Sahuagin ¨C lawyeristic leader of a band of mercenaries.

    Tarasand ¨C Mostly underwater town, some few towers reach above the waves:

    ? Fantosh ¨C dwarf male ¨C an expert smith and gossiper.

    on Earth

    High School:

    ? Dr Andrews the head of the biology department.

    ? Denver ¨C a pain in the ass who thinks he¡¯s funny.

    ? Williams ¨C the school¡¯s star quarterback ¨C decent enough unless riled.

    University

    ? Daniel Hunter ¨C human ¨C grossly overweight librarian and researcher

    ? Dr Cassiopeia ¡°Cas¡± Merrow ¨C human? ¨C specializes in ocean creatures bearing tentacles ¨C mentoring program.

    Others:

    ? Henry Ritter ¨C old guy ¨C owner of a small but prosperous jewellery store.

    Unranked ¨C Novice ¨C Apprentice ¨C Journeyman ¨C Master ¨C Veteran ¨C Elite ¨C Godlike

 Chapter 17

    Mary had finally succeeded with her spies, the lankmar-rats as she called them or man-rats as they called themselves were slightly bigger than their progenitors and had distinctly bigger skulls. Currently she had two varieties, one, with a humanoid build and the second and more numerous looking much like any other rat but equipped with better hands. She sent them off in two purpose built catamarans to establish themselves in Port Salvage and Drakoton. She informed them of her plans to further evolve them so that they would become a dual natured race capable of assuming either form.

    The current version of her sea wyvern was coming along nicely, they were nocturnal, rather unintelligent but fast agile swimmers and reasonable flyers. The electrical generation she had added allowed for reasonably accurate discharges via their silver horns.

    Then she busied herself with the sunken pirate ships, she enveloped them slightly securing them to sea floor before moving the smallest into the lagoon and then raising it above the waves. It took her two days as after all she interspersed this boring task with many other more interesting things.

    ? Hey Trish, I¡¯ve just noticed something funny, here let me show you. Nice heh! where do you think that tiny scrap of divine mana came from? ?

    Trisha felt giddy, it was as if she¡¯d just drunk a shot of hundred proof spirits. ¡°Wh-What, how...¡± she spluttered and joined Mary in searching for the source. It surprised them but the amount was miniscule, not particularly refined and thus really not very useful. It would seem that her rats and octopi worshiped Ocidon as their god and she got a ¨C commission ¨C yes commission as their creator.

    Oh well, back to work ... Mmm maybe that would work.

    * * *

    Vinculus the Red wincing internally at the cost threw a great party to welcome his recovered people back to Port Salvage, free booze, food and doxies for all his people.

    At least he had been able to snap up a prize on his way back from Drakoton, the merchantman was frankly a tub but it would do admirably to transport troops. Pity none of the crew and passengers had survived but his men had been unhappy and that meant vicious. None of the survivors of the boarding had had an easy death. At least it had calmed his lot down.

    Now he was watching the results from the balcony of his mansion, he could see at least one body in the street. In any other town the watch would be out putting down the riot, here, why the locals simply battened down the storm shutters and hoped to ride out the festivities intact.

    This was his town.

    * * *

    Rafael sourly perused the document on his desk, it was a report from his counterpart in Drakoton and it had only arrived a week after Ms Silvestre had the news. Three notorious pirate leaders and five of their known lieutenants were hanged the rest of the pirates were branded as first offenders and released.

    The mercenaries were each fined a silver guilder and released, the adventurers received an apology ¨C an apology ¨C and were released. Danilus was going to be unhappy. Then just two days later a ship believed to be the Red Terror called and took the pirates away. Danilus was going to be very unhappy.

    Rafael went out of his way to locate Drina and addressing her as the Voice bowed slightly and apologised to Mary for the ¨C to him ¨C unforeseen happenings in Drakoton.

    Drina grinned, then sighed and looked resigned, he was just starting to feel worried when one of Drinas huge young cats deposited a decapitated rat body at her feet with a pleased sounding miao. The girl started to pet and scratch her pet obviously not looking forward to disposing of the corpse. Rafael chuckled, picked up the body and strode away under Drina¡¯s grateful gaze.

    He was right Danilus had not been pleased, he had been rendered speechless. ¡°You mean they released close to one hundred and fifty pirates with no more than a brand that everyone knows can be removed at any temple of Vortexius Blackbeard for a prayer and a modest donation of no more than a handful of copper bits?¡± he finally managed.

    * * *

    Sildanus and the other members of the Shark¡¯s bane were soon directing operations at the top of the sea mount they had discovered, the seagrass field was mostly a thing of the past and the workers and specialists they had hired had quickly levelled the ground and the first two buildings of the settlement were nearing completion. These were the inn, as yet unnamed as was the settlement and the Adventurers guild hall.

    Their first visitors were a band of dwarves that arrived in a large green tinged diving bell. They bargained for the purchase of a plot of land on the edge of the hill to build a dock tower and a series of caverns for their community. Sildanus after consulting with his friends and partners decided to accept the proposal and soon the underwater mountain was host to numerous dwarves liberally covered with businesslike enchantments allowing them to exist underwater while the bell made many more appearances.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Massina and Harmanus also met Pete while they were out for a relaxing swim, Massina noticed him first, she sensed another mage and discovered a very large octopus. She alerted Harmanus and they prepared for combat but were astounded when Pete spoke to them.

    ¡°Hey no need for that, I¡¯m friendrry, I¡¯ve just come to check out the new town.¡±

    Massina was rendered speechless, and more so after she inspected Pete. This was the first octopus she had come across labelled Mage lvl 5.

    ¡°Are there any more of you in the area, we¡¯ll have to alert the settlement to avoid misunderstandings,¡± said Harmanus.

    ¡°Just a few of us at the moment, I just came to see what a town rrooks rrike, we rrive in caves rrower down, I thought I might fetch the wife for a rrok too,¡± Pete replied.

    So Massina and Harmanus escorted their new acquaintance to the new settlement where they astounded everyone with the very articulate octopus they had found and after he left promising to fetch the wife for a look soon the settlement gained a name. New Town was born.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    It took Creevar¡¯s Killers five days to locate the new entrance to Hell¡¯s Mouth and a further two for Zashaan to gather the scattered searchers and relocate their camp half a days march to the North.

    The entrance wasn¡¯t much, just a half-meter wide passage hidden behind an outthrust rock. The passage itself was long and straight, it looked to be new and was protected by a few reasonably sophisticated but classic traps that Zashaan easily detected and disarmed.

    Their reception was hot when they finally reached the end of the almost kilometre long passage. The room they arrived at contained a mix of skeletons ¨C not all humanoid ¨C and magic throwing imps.

    They were never in any danger, it just took time to deal with the sheer number of monsters occupying the rather dilapidated first level. The second level was virtually deserted with just the end room having a challenge.

    Hells¡¯s Mouth was growing frantic. He finally managed to reach the surface from his new rather Spartan level and collapsed the two floors below his new third level. Arbogar carried an exhausted Hell¡¯s Mouths gem into the furthest point in the new level.

    Once again Creevar¡¯s killers felt a dungeon¡¯s domain dissipate, this time accompanied by rumbling and rocks falling from the ceiling. They fled a potentially collapsing dungeon and gathered outside the entrance.

    Harrassan regarded his friends and shrugged his shoulders.

    ¡°This wasn¡¯t the same dungeon we fought last time, this dungeon is a much better match for the description Creevar gave us. What¡¯s going on?¡± queried Zashaan.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, I will pray to Creevar for an answer tonight, will you join me?¡± stated Sreecator.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    The last step was the opening of a kobold sized crawl way from her heart chamber that terminated halfway up a cliff out of sight of her dungeon¡¯s entrance, she was never going to be without an escape route again.

    A fortnight later all her surviving original kobolds had names and had evolved. She was able to summon assorted beasts and scattered the peppery smelling herb Darkmoon had found around her dungeon. The real find was the saffron plant, that one she held back from growing thinking it too valuable for her current setup.

    Then she had a visitor, to wit a rather unhygienic goatherd with fourteen equally rank smelling goats. She ordered one of her new kobolds ¨C no need to give away information about flying monsters ¨C to take a couple of jackals and give him a good scare and maybe a light wound or two and take her toll in the form of a goat for her defenders'' pot.

    Rosht had been delighted to find a new stream and had followed it to a cave he didn¡¯t remember. He followed the stream into the cave and his eyes widened at the sight of a starbell growing by the stream in the cave. He cut the stem taking the flower and all the leaves he could see being careful to leave the roots. He had just carefully placed his prize in his pack when he heard growls and saw a kobold armed with a flint tipped spear charging him accompanied by two distinctly oversized jackals.

    Rosht joined his goats and fled thanking Plutonis that kobolds disliked the sun. Rosht hurried South heading for his village mourning the loss of one of his charges but grateful to be alive and unhurt. And that starbell was worth more than two goats.

    Two days later after leaving the goats in the care of his nephew Rosht arrived in Arsouk and rather hesitantly entered the shabby local office of the Adventurers Guild. The clerk behind the reception desk listened to his story and inspected the starbell while attempting to hide his distaste of the smell wafting from Rosht. There was indeed a good chance that the herder had found a new dungeon. A previously unknown stream and cave, kobolds and jackals working together and a mana rich starbell so Fredar sent his current runner to fetch the local guildmaster.

    Guildmaster Burritis agreed to buy the starbell as otherwise it would lose most of its virtue and organised a party from those local adventurers present at the guild. He sent the ad-hoc group off with Rosht before authorising the finders fee.

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    Dawn was breaking when Mary arrived at the beach and set up her fishing gear ¨C what there was of it ¨C and then she was engaged in one of her favourite pastimes. The shark was irritating, fun to get on the beach but she never quite knew what to do with the things.

    This time however it helped her level up! She had noted the blue dot in the corner of her eye and when she triggered it she was informed that her Oceanic Ranger subclass Scholar was now lvl 5. She swiped the box away and determined to study the beep things later.

    Soon her catch bag was full and Dancer showed up expecting to be fed. He was and not just by her, the local gang of regulars had sort of adopted Dancer.

    When she was packing to leave one of the regulars, Mac, approached her and rather hesitantly said, ¡°sorry if this sounds stupid, but that gesture you made after you landed that shark, are you starting to see ¨C blue boxes with bizarre messages?¡±

    Mary blinked at him and froze for a moment, ¡°Um ¨C Yeah...?¡±

 Chapter 18

    Trish watched wide eyed as Pete and Shirley arrived back in the dungeon riding one of Mary¡¯s early experimental sea Wyverns. ¡°What level are you Mary?¡±

    ? Dunno, why? ?

    ¡°You don¡¯t know! How is that possible.¡±

    ? Oh I tol¡¯ Bluey to not bother me an¡¯ just dump the atrib points into int then will then wis then luck an¡¯ repeat an the skill ones into research an¡¯ tinkering, err... I mean DNA manipulation an¡¯ creature creation. ?

    ¡°But... but... but...¡± ejaculated Trisha scandalised. ¡°What about creatures, you should get more options at level five then ten.¡±

    ? After the Cat incident I just tol¡¯ Bluey to surprise me wi¡¯ the proviso that I was free to reject his gift. ?

    ¡°Wait, what, you call the System Bluey and he allows it!¡± Trisha exclaimed.

    Trisha gained the distinct impression that her friend and partner was regarding her with uncomprehending bemusement.

    ¡°Umm... do you mind if I check your log?¡±

    ? Sure go ahead, some of the earlier messages will probably have been overwritten by now. ?

    Armed with Mary¡¯s permission Trisha dived into a veritable sea of blue and emerged dazed and bemused some hours later.

    ¡°Mary, what do you think Bluey means when he says ¡®it¡¯s a rollover¡¯.¡±

    ? Usually means nobody¡¯s won the lottery that week an¡¯ the prize is doubled, why? ?

    ¡°Well, when you hit level twenty you must have done or said something that Bluey took as acceptance and your second monster class thanks to those rollover things is Beastfolk and you are now on another rollover.¡±

    ? That¡¯s nice, thanks Bluey. ?

    ? You¡¯re Welcome ¨C Mother of Monsters ?

    ¡°...¡±

    ? Cheers Bluey that¡¯s a cool beep title. ?

    ? ... ?

    ¡°...¡±

    * * *

    Mary¡¯s rats arrived at Drakoton in good time and hid their catamaran that if scaled up would not have been out of place in one of Earth¡¯s marinas carefully. They easily infiltrated Drakoton and entered the courthouse later that same night eliciting the comment ¡°always knew that lot were a bunch of rats¡± from a passing night watchman.

    After perusing the available written records the infiltrators soon had the names of those responsible for the farce of a trial that freed the pirates.

    After lying low for the day, romancing some of the local rodent beauties they resumed their task at dusk. Four luxurious mansions were infiltrated one after the other, two watchdogs were slain via poisoned thorns launched via blowpipes.

    They had the names they had been sent to find by the end of the second night. Now there was only one, well two things left to do. One more day of romancing the local beauties and it was time. The leader prepared his weapons and sent his subordinate to prepare their catamaran for a fast getaway.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    The rats entered Ruutus¡¯ mansion one hour after the fall of night and found him sporting with two young ladies all three in a state of undress as is appropriate for such activities. The leader awaited the ideal moment patiently and when the three participants cried out in real and pretend passion quickly puffed two poisoned thorns one after the other, and pausing only long enough to check his aim ¨C ass and balls ¨C left the scene with his companions. They were just hitting the public road when the shrill screams started.

    The Nightwatch had barely responded to the dastardly assassination when a small catamaran flying all sail and with a billowing spinnaker raced away from shore skimming over the waves heading for home.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Sreecator led their prayers that night and Creevar walked in their dreams that night. The next morning they all spent a good hour meditating on the honour their God had granted them.

    ¡°Well the news isn¡¯t good, Azurea was ¨C careless ¨C we attacked the wrong dungeon last time, even asking for confirmation Azurea...¡± grumbled Harrassan. ¡°So do we find the Kobold dungeon and verify that it hasn¡¯t gone rogue due to...¡±

    ¡°Our actions because of Azurea¡¯s.... carelessness.¡± Interjected Warminor, ¡°mind you I still feel some resentment.¡±

    ¡°But it was only rightly defending itself... we will have to forgive it, it only did what we would have done in its place,¡± stated Sreecator unhappily.

    ¡°You¡¯re right brother. It is difficult but I will forgive it,¡± agreed Harrassan glumly. ¡°I suggest we return to Arsouk and see if we can pick up any news of new dungeons and commission a scry to locate Hell¡¯s Mouth¡¯s new location.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Erekos? was soaring high in the evening sky when he saw the group of humans approaching his queen¡¯s realm. Taking care to approach them from the East he was able to discern that the one in the lead was the goatherd that had gifted them with that tasty goat. Unfortunately there was no sign of any goats this time. It would seem adventurers had arrived and would come calling on the morrow.

    He rode a fading thermal high into the sky before making use of the gathering darkness to slip back into the dungeon, via his queen¡¯s escape route with the news.

    After Rosht had pointed at the cave and the small rather feeble stream issuing from it the group of adventurers had briefly ventured into the cave and then withdrawn to set up camp for the night. They agreed that it looked and felt promising.

    The next day after a hearty breakfast the adventurers ventured into the caverns all rather relieved to be far from Rosht¡¯s rather penetrating aroma.

    The first level didn¡¯t offer much of a challenge, the presence of small escape tunnels was unusual, the way the dungeon¡¯s denizens often ignored their tank¡¯s taunts was more worrying. They failed to complete the second level due to the dungeon¡¯s unusual tactics and the presence of flying kobolds at least one of which was a mage.

    After another day in their camp they divided their spoils and satisfied they left to return to report to their guildmaster. A nice little nature aligned dungeon with kobolds.

    Rosht was absolutely delighted with his prize for the discovery of the dungeon, twenty-five gold nobles! Rosht was no fool so Frazd the banker had another visitor who invested twenty nobles in his low-risk portfolio. Rosht was not surprised that after he left every window and door of Frazd¡¯s establishment was thrown open. It often happened when he left.

    * * *

    Sandrinna and Darkmoon were studying her status screens, she had just achieved level five and had several important decisions to make, they were also worried that her status screen showed Sandrinna was currently unaligned with any deity.

    But first they chose Lizardmen as their second monster type from the updated list offered by the System. Then they distributed their available attribute and skill points.

    Then they queried the System as to the divine alignment stat. On learning of Azurea¡¯s hostility they both felt a frisson of fear.

    ? Hel-Arlizzy has offered his patronage, do you wish to come under his purview ¨C yes/no ?

    ? Yes! ? exclaimed Sandrinna, and her update was completed.

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    Mac and Mary stared at each other as each tried to digest the fact that they weren¡¯t alone. Then they both blurted out a few disjointed sentences at cross purposes and fell silent.

    Their attitude and actions drew the attention of AnnMarie, after all the sight of another female paying attention to Mac was bound to arouse her interest.

    ¡°Hey wait! You two are seeing blue boxes!¡± AnnMarie exclained.

    Mac and Mary turned ¨C somewhat defensively ¨C to face AnnMarie. ¡°Yeah...!¡± ¡°Yes!¡±

    AnnMarie stared at them stupefied then noting their defensive attitude blurted, ¡°Hey wait, it¡¯s just that I thought I was going mad when ...¡± she waved a hand vaguely in front of her face, ¡°... I started seeing them.¡±

    They packed their gear in silence and retired to a local coffee shop for a somewhat hesitant exchange of views which only stopped when their waiter asked what MMORPG they were playing because that ocean ranger class sounded cool.

 Chapter 19

    Rafael swore softly as he read the latest missive from his counterpart in Drakoton. He couldn¡¯t see how Mary could have had anything to do with this but somehow he was certain she was responsible he could still remember the Voice saying ¡®... or will be soon¡¯.

    So once again Rafael made his way to the High Priest¡¯s office with unsettling news.

    ¡°So this Ruutus was assassinated whilst sporting with two prostitutes and no one has been able to figure out how the deed was done, so why does the death of the chief magistrate of Drakoton affect us?¡±

    ¡°Well according to Captain Haz¡¯afsad Ruutus was probably the man behind the release of the pirates and their allies. He lived an exceedingly luxurious and extravagant life and his visible means whilst notable didn¡¯t come close to his expenditure. And I can¡¯t forget Drina¡¯s statement that day, that those responsible would soon be dealt with,¡± explained Rafael.

    ¡°Mmm... Yes, it¡¯s possible, but I think we will assume it has nothing to do with us. But yes, I do think you¡¯re right, please keep an eye on things. Oh, just idle curiosity on my part, but who or what is Hawaii?¡±

    Rafael blinked, then shrugged, ¡°A large island state, part of the realm I originally came from.

    ¡°And no I came from Arizona, near half a world away from Hawaii, Arizona is nothing like Hawaii.¡±

    * * *

    Mary¡¯s second party of infiltrators and information gatherers ghosted into Port Salvage just after midnight, their pale grey catamaran was surprisingly hard to see and soon hidden in a cranny of the outlet of a disused stormdrain.

    They spent two weeks mapping the town from underneath, checking for weaknesses and investigating the many discontented citizens. One of their number was careless and captured by a bored local, the savagery of the captured rat earned it its life.

    Blazos was an entrepreneur of sorts and despite his bleeding arms was pleased with his captured mutant rat. The damn thing had a mouthful of ripping carnivorous teeth to complement the wickedly sharp incisors common to its kind. He guessed it would do well in the fight pit.

    That evening ¡°Killer¡± made his d¨¦but, the patrons of Kracks¡¯ fight pit didn¡¯t find anything strange in yet another rat named Killer to bet on. This Killer was strange, he seemed to evaluate his foes before moving with incredible swiftness, usually taking out one of his foe''s eyes before demolishing it from the blind side. Blazos made a killing while ¡°Killer¡± soaked up gossip like a sponge.

    Later when left alone in a cage with some of the other stars of the arena ¡°killer¡± found it easy to reach through the bars, flip the catch and walk out.

    Sixteen days after they had arrived they left for home with everything they had been asked for.

    * * *

    After the return of her spies Mary rewarded them generously, then she formally named the leaders of each of her two groups of spies. Then after allowing them a few days rest she sent them out again with a similar set of missions to the ones they had been so successful before.

    Mary was somewhat frustrated, she knew what she wanted for her Lhankmar inspired rats, but she needed... Yes, she¡¯d use the beep beep adventurer¡¯s guild.

    So not long after Pete set off for New Town with a couple of notices.

    Mary then informed Blacksand that she had arranged two deliveries to his inn, deliveries to an as yet nonexistent Thomas Felix, and to advise Trisha or Drina if they arrived.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    Now back to having fun. She had been unsatisfied when she checked out her new monster class, she did not think humans with a few cosmetic changes and a few minor advantages and disadvantages classified as a new species. But with the lake van cat template and the cat beastfolk template plus what she had recorded from the elites... yes... possibly... almost certainly...¡±

    Trisha sighed, that burst of excitement down their link, followed by a single-minded burst of furious concentration could only mean one thing. Mary was at it again.

    * * *

    Sildanus the acting guildmaster of the New Town Adventurer¡¯s Guild noted two new posters on the quest board, in fact they were the only two posters on the quest board. Curious he went to check them out. Huh... someone named Thomas Felix wanted a pair of healthy live wolves at the Silver Dolphin Inn in the Blue Lagoon and was willing to pay two imperials. Not bad.

    The other, Thomas Felix wanted a healthy were and would pay four mithril Royals... Oh F&%$.

    He looked round and sure enough two quest forms, all nicely filled in were lying of the reception desk.

    Sildanus grasped the bull by the horns and used the messenger service to send the two quest requests to his regional HQ. Any quest offering a reward of a royal or more merited immediate notification.

    Later that day in the Adventurer¡¯s Guild in Garonmouth Sofos Ironfist the Guildmaster authorised the quests despite his qualms regarding the delivery point. In a matter of days thanks to their messaging system the Quest was widely available.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Hell¡¯s Mouth breathed a virtual sigh of relief, he was still alive, He and Arbogar planned as well as they could and started forging ever Northwards opening new entrances and then collapsing the old ones and the connecting warrens as they went. They were making good progress but it was still slow going.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Sandrinna and Darkmoon weren¡¯t quite sure what to do with the desert eagle Erekos? had gifted them with. It didn¡¯t really fit in the dungeon, not even in the largest cavern in their new third level but it was a large, aggressive and strong. They thanked Erekos? and decided to store it for the time being and went back to planning the setup of the third floor and the best use of their new lizardmen.

    * * *

    Meanwhile back in Arsouk guildmaster Burritis was contemplating the report his ad-hoc group had turned in. The only troubling point was the groups belief that the dungeon monsters were trying to ignore the tanks taunts. Well, nothing to do now except forward a copy of the report to the regional HQ.

    So when a week later Creevar¡¯s Killers waltzed into his shabby guild office he was worried that he had fouled up something, he had not expected to see one of the premier adventurer parties in his this forsaken land again.

    Harrassan reassured him that they had no mission regarding his guild, so Burritis, never one to look gift horses in the mouth, decided to enrol Harrassam and his party to conduct a professional assessment of his new dungeon and to accompany and protect old Gressissa the seer who had volunteered to cast a limited divination to gain a magical assessment of the dungeon.

    Harrassan didn¡¯t bother to enlighten Burritis, a man he most definitely did not admire but accepted the commission. The dungeon in question sounded remarkably like the one they had chased out of it¡¯s home after all. Not that he could see how it could have moved so far so soon.

    He joined his friends at the quest board to see what was holding their attention. Four Royals for a were? Maybe after this mission if it was still available.

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    Mary was on the bus heading home when she felt a tug at her neck followed by an agonised scream. She looked at the young man rolling on the floor of the bus clutching his right hand screaming in agony, the corners of her mouth twitched up. Seeing that the would be thief was the centre of attraction she decided to twitch on the two strings of energy she could see linking the thief with two of the other passengers. She had a hard time holding back a laugh as a wallet and a gold ladies watch slid from his pockets onto the aisle of the bus. The enraged cries of ¡°Hey that¡¯s my wallet¡± and ¡°my watch! Thief!¡± were music to her ears.

    Later at home she settled comfortably in her favourite armchair, flipped open her phone and made a call. When the call connected she jerked the receiver from her ear wincing at the appalling racket that issued from it.

    ¡°Heya Flip were you at, who¡¯s hammerin¡¯ steel?¡±

    ¡°Hi Sis, I¡¯m at the body shop, Fred insisted on showing me an old Jalopy.¡±

    Mary was barely able to make out someone saying, ¡°that¡¯s not nice Phil, it¡¯s a nice car...¡± presumably Fred.

    ¡°Look Flip any chance we could get together later, I want to ask you about those MMRGP things you¡¯re so keen on.¡±

    ¡°Flipping to the dark side Sis, you mean MMORPGs though, sure thing, I¡¯ll pass by later and we can talk.¡±

    ¡°¡¯K ¡®bye see ya later then.¡± And Mary disconnected glad to stop hearing that discordant racket.

 Chapter 20

    Mary opened up her secret dock cavern on Children¡¯s Island and slowly filled the locks with water from the lagoon. She watched with satisfaction as the first two of her reconditioned captures sailed slowly across the lagoon. Then she moved the remaining two sunken vessels into the shipyard cavern and pumping out the locks closed it up once again.

    Her first cat beastfolk went with them aiding the scratch crews of former natives. She was well satisfied and felt that giving the locals one of the former pirate ships was a good bargain for their help fixing all four ships.

    As for Thomas, she was really pleased, maybe he was prone to taking naps at the drop of a hat, and had far less endurance than normal humans but he could leap twice his body height, had incredible reflexes and speed. She thought that his striped brownish ginger bushy tail and hair were cute.

    Also that monster type thing had proved useful as she was able to use it to give him seaman and command skills. Making him a free willed being free of the dungeon had been harder but worth it. Her plan for humiliating and destroying that beep pirate was coming along nicely.

    Next step, to build a trimaran on the lines of the Gitana 17 she had drooled over back on earth, nothing on this world would be able to catch a trimaran capable of fifty knots.

    Danilus watched the two mid-sized brigantines flying a blueish green flag emblazoned with a white dolphin sail across the lagoon heading for the harbour, he noted in passing that a passage had opened in the protective coral reef to allow them to enter harbour.

    He was at the dock when they arrived and noticed with some amusement that the larger of the two was named Dolphin and apparently belonged to a collective of former natives, the other was the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory and belonged to the dungeon.

    He joined in the celebrations but left early and returned to his duties. This was the first he had heard of the underground dock and shipyard on the Children¡¯s Island and of Mary being willing to hire the admittedly very loyal islanders. He wondered if Alessandrina¡¯s Glory would be available for leasing.

    Thomas Felix left Silverton a week later as paid supercargo on the Sea Sprite to learn navigation and ship handling. Mary had selected the Sea Sprite because it was doing the regular supply runs for the temple and tended to turn up every month or so.

    * * *

    Sildanus watched Tankard Strongarm the leader of New Town¡¯s dwarven community emerge from the water-lock into the inns bar and wade through the ¨C for him ¨C chest deep water to his table.

    ¡°Sildanus is that quest on the up and up?¡± asked Tankard urgently.

    Sildanus grinned, dwarves and mithril, it seemed old Tankard wasn¡¯t immune. ¡°which one? You mean the one to catch a pair of wolves, yes it is.¡±

    ¡°Who cares about sodding wolves, I mean the mithril ... ah four royals one,¡± insisted an agitated Tankard.

    ¡°That one, yes it is, you want an ale?¡±

    ¡°Sod that, I¡¯ve got to let my cousin know, he¡¯s a lunatic adventurer and he needs to know,¡± said Tankard as he turned and left hastily.

    Dwarves and mithril indeed. Sildanus managed to restrain his laughter until the dwarf had left.

    * * *

    With their catamaran once again hidden the man-rats, both rat and humanoid resumed their activities in Drakoton. They found the hardest part of their mission was to avoid carelessness as nobody who saw a rat suspected anything unusual. One clerk had even chased one of them with wails of horror as he thought the rat was about to eat the valuable secret trade agreement on the table.

    This time the leader of the band decided on a more public lesson. They had learned that their target was going to be at a banquet given by the local mayor and they even had the seating plan for the guests, so...

    First, two nights were spent widening, creating and checking rat tunnels in the town hall and almost creating a new rat hole in the wainscoting behind the bench where their object lesson was going to be sitting.

    On the night of the banquet Mary¡¯s assassins watched the guests arrive and as soon as their target arrived they infiltrated the Town Hall. The humanoid leader and two of the rats moved through the tunnels they had prepared. Once the speeches had been given and the sound of the festivities could be heard the rats finished their entrance, their leader followed his potential decoys into the hall and prepared his blowpipe and darts as he verified his target¡¯s location.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Two quick puffs, a second to assure himself of his aim and the leader of the band departed followed by his minions. Once again the merry band of rodents were skimming the waves on their way home within the hour.

    Behind them the judge that had presided over the trial of the pirates and had willingly carried out the former chief magistrates orders clutched at the back of his neck, spasmed in agony and landed face down in his plate quite dead.

    The head of the local Night Watch threw his hands up in the air and passed the case of the invisible assassin into the hands of the lord¡¯s Justicar. He just hoped all the furore wouldn¡¯t cost him his cushy job.

    The Lord¡¯s Justicar had mixed feelings, he knew himself to be a methodical sort of man but no great solver of mysteries. However this case did allow Lord Hillier to claw back some of the authority over Drakoton that his father had foolishly ceded and anyway he had people to do the puzzle solving for him so all he had to do was select one or two of these and turn them loose with letters of authority.

    * * *

    Blacksand hunted out his friend Trisha, ¡°Trisha what does Mary want with two flea bitten wolves, did you know I¡¯ve got a couple of arrogant adventurers in my inn asking for Thomas Felix and their two imperials.¡±

    Trisha blanked out momentarily as she checked with Mary, then she smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s OK, I¡¯ll just give Jaasoon two imperials and a little bonus for a fast job and ask him to send one of his people to pretend to be Thomas and pay the adventurers for completing the quest.¡±

    Trisha giggled and regarded her friend with a glint in her eye.

    ¡°What! Why are you looking at me like that for,¡± Blacksand asked uneasily.

    ¡°You¡¯ll soon see,¡± grinned Trisha and left.

    Not much later a stocky middle-aged man entered the common room of the Spirit Dolphin Inn and after a quick look round headed for the corner table where two obviously tough individuals were seated sipping their ales while a pair of wolves watched the room unhappily from their small cage.

    ¡°Good afternoon, I¡¯m Thomas Felix and I see you have fulfilled my quest,¡± he placed a small almost empty looking purse on the table. ¡°Your reward and something extra for a quick job.¡±

    One of the adventurers picked up and checked the purse and checked the contents while the other watched the common room warily.

    ¡°Very nice, thanks for the bonus, hope to do business with you again.¡± Said the adventurer as he pocketed the purse, ¡°three coins, two imperials and a noble,¡± he informed his partner quietly.

    ¡°I¡¯ll just get a couple of friends to remove the wolves, do you want the cage back?¡±

    ¡°Keep it,¡± replied the adventurer.

    ¡°So why did you want a pair of wolves,¡± Trisha asked Mary later as they watched the pair explore the tree filled cavern that was to be their new home.

    ? I need wolves for my fairy tales and while a ship¡¯s cat is all well and good I want some proper sea dogs to man my ships. ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    It had taken longer than either of them had expected but the finally they had regained level five. Hell¡¯s Mouth and Arbogar agonised over the choices they had available and finally, reluctantly they opted for Goblins as their new monster choice. As goblin dungeons were fairly common they figured it would hopefully give them cover when they finally arrived at their new location, and anyway the nasty little creatures did not object to coexisting with demons and undead unlike most of their other choices.

    The second choice they had was somewhat easier, thanks to having finally exhausted their store of Azurea¡¯s divine mana they discarded their tentative and unreturned allegiance to Azurea and embraced Hel-Arlizzy as their protector.

    Soon, another couple of months or so and they would be ready to settle in, lure in new victims and grow.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Erekos? panicked and fled back to his queen. It was those monsters again, all of them even the one they had killed.

    Sandrinna was no happier despite Hel-Arlizzy¡¯s recent assurances that recent misunderstandings had been cleared up. She just couldn¡¯t bring herself to trust his assurances and had her core moved to the small cave near the exit of her escape tunnel.

    * * *

    Harrassan was impressed once again by his guides, Avor and Essa had followed the faint trail left by the previous expedition unerringly and it took them just over a day and a half to arrive at the dungeon instead of the three days Burritis had said. Gressissa the seer also seemed to be impressed by the twins complimenting them on the quality of their camels.

    They camped about a kilometre from the dungeon at the request of Gressissa who spent several hours setting up a ritual.

    The ritual was done by the end of the day and Gressissa informed them of the results even as she filled in the forms required by the guild.

    ¡°Three levels but it¡¯s level five, has Kobolds, evolved Kobolds and Lizardmen. Main affinities water and earth and is deathly afraid of something.¡±

    Harrassan cursed, he knew they would have to do something to reassure the thing so it wouldn¡¯t bolt again.

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    Mary Moving hesitantly as Flip held his hands over her eyes, then with a ¡°Ta Ra¡± he removed his hands leaving her looking at a rather antiquated looking green canvas topped jeep.

    Mary looked round at Flip ignoring the other man in the garage, ¡°So Flip, I can see it¡¯s kinda cute in a rugged kinda way, but...¡±

    Flip handed her a set of keys and said, ¡°That Sis is your new car, a present from me for passing your test.¡±

    Mary blinked and studied her new transport, ¡°But Flip...¡±

    The other man came forward, ¡°Hey Mary don¡¯t worry we fixed it up a treat, that¡¯s a genuine 1968 M38A1 Truck, Utility: 1/4 ton, 4x4, or Willys MD. Any problems and I¡¯ll fix them and give ya the same discount I give your brother.¡±

    ¡®Her wheels, the beep thing was growin¡¯ on her. It was certainly distinctive.¡¯

    ¡°It suits you Sis, no way I can afford the yachts you lust over but this is you. Blunt as a truck and bullheaded.¡± Flip ducked but his sister didn¡¯t swat him, she just grinned and then hugged him.

    ¡°Hey Mary, if ya want ya can sell it for a fair sum and buy something smaller and handier, and have something left over.¡±

    Mary released her brother, ¡°Na I¡¯ll keep it, think it suits me. Thanks guys.¡±

 Chapter 21

    The wolves were useless for what she wanted, this pair would never make the ''big bad wolf'' list.They were good hunters but somewhat timid. If they were starving and desperate maybe but that wouldn¡¯t be any good. At least she could make her wolfman beastfolk now. They were going to get their bloody mindedness from their human side though. Endurance, strength, patience and a sense of smell that would allow them to locate a ship over the horizon if it happened to be upwind.

    When Thomas Felix now universally known as Tomcat by his shipmates arrived back from his training cruise Mary had enough beastfolk to crew a ship and to include a small marine detachment.

    Tomcat took them out in shifts for short round the atoll cruises on the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory with some Sailors on temporary hire to season them and ensure their template gained skills matched reality.

    On the night they sailed additional sailors were sent abroad so that the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory sailed with over twice the number of sailors needed to man her.

    The rat¡¯s catamaran quickly outdistanced the former pirate ship and joined their comrades in Port Salvage and prepared for their part of the plan.

    The rats were enjoying themselves, first they found that stealing gold from Vinculus the Red¡¯s treasury to be ridiculously easy unlike stealing anything from his pantry. Forging the notes they wanted was even easier, they actually found a drawer half full of the letters in question, all they had to do was fill in the date and time. The stamp they needed to authenticate the letters was in another drawer in the same desk.

    The second stage was trickier but they achieved it without more than having to endure a few curses and an ill aimed tankard.

    The bar and tavern owners didn¡¯t suspect anything, the letters with gold were on their bars in the morning, Vinculus had treated the town to free drinks before, the letter even indicated what drinks could be dispensed.

    So that night Port Salvage partied hard, many of the ships in the harbour were left crewless, a few managed to retain a very disgruntled skeleton watch.

    So, when a short while before midnight the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory came to a halt just outside the harbour and launched several longboats loaded with sailors and marines it went undetected as the men who were supposed to be on watch were gazing resentfully at the party taking place ashore.

    Two longboats managed to row unnoticed to the Red Terror and the catfolk marines swarmed on board led by Tomcat. A short and vicious fight ensued with all the pirates ending up in the harbour. The sailors who had followed the marines soon had the anchor cable cut and the sails down. Rowers swarmed into the longboats to turn the Red Terror to allow it to best catch the wind.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Another two longboats found the recently captured merchantman empty and replicated the efforts of their comrades on the Red Terror.

    Tomcat passed an anxious half-hour before his prizes were actually moving.

    The man-rats for their part proceeded with the next stage of the plan ¡°humiliate Vinculus¡± when they saw the two ships leave harbour. A few flasks of oil spread around and a spark or two and three warehouses were burning. They lost no time getting to their speedy catamarans and heading home.

    Tomcat detoured and left the pirate¡¯s ex-prize in a small port on the island of Jarvoon and arranged with the harbour master to return the ship to its owners.

    A few days later Danilus strolled into his guard captain¡¯s cubby and asked if the ship currently at anchor in their harbour was the Red Terror.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s the Blue Wyvern,¡± replied Rafael sourly. ¡°But, yes it was indeed the Red Terror a few days ago.¡±

    * * *

    Bolithco blinked at the quest board and took down the quest and strode over to the reception desk and placed it down. "We¡¯ll take this."

    The clerk glanced down, checked Bolithco¡¯s ID and stamped the appropriate documents passing Bolithco''s copy across to him with an indifferent ¡°have a good day¡±.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Harrassan stumped up to the dungeon alone, he stepped into the entrance and apologised for their previous actions feeling distinctly silly. He then informed the dungeon of their current orders and offered to await a reply and professed himself ready to answer any questions.

    Sandrinna although suspicious was cautiously hopeful and reluctantly allowed Darkmoon to go and speak with the adventurer.

    Harrassan was surprised to be addressed by a pixie but managed to almost reassure Sandrinna and Darkmoon.

    The delve was brutal, Sandrinna gave it her all, using all the traps, tricks and tactics she, Blacksand and Erekos? had come up with.

    The adventurers prevailed and in the final room were able to coax Sandrinna to allow them to view her core at a safe distance in her escape tunnel.

    Harrassan was disgusted, ¡°Water, Earth, Air and Life. And Azurea wanted us to kill her because of demons and undead. No way can this dungeon summon or control either.¡±

    Warminor added, ¡°yes but it¡¯s cunning, I¡¯d rank it Novice for the first level and Apprentice for the next two levels, I suspect a fourth level when it appears will be Journeyman ranked.

    ¡°A decent enough starter dungeon, though the rewards are kind of low on the third level. The guild will have to keep an eye on it as it shows signs of growing stronger.¡± Decided Harrassan.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary emerged from her bedroom and headed towards the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. She glanced out of the lounge window and froze. She couldn¡¯t be seeing what she thought she was seeing.

    ¡°Hey mama, come quick please,¡± she said unbelievingly.

    Her mother came to the door of the lounge and saw her daughter pointing out of the window.

    ¡°What is it Mary, I¡¯ve already seen you new jeep, your brother¡¯s s¡ª¡± she said as she joined her daughter at the window. ¡°Is that a fairy... what!¡±

    The two women watched the tiny scantily clad woman flit about the jeep in stupefied amazement. Then the pixie spotted them in the window and streaked across the road to hide in the Jamison¡¯s garden.

 Chapter 22

    Bolithco screamed as the alpha of the werewolf pack caught him as he fled from the scene of the disaster and tore him to pieces.

    Later that day the clerks at various Adventurer¡¯s Guild offices noted that the Were Quest was once again available.

    * * *

    Trisha and Mary watched with interest as several groups of New Town based adventurers attempted to penetrate her domain. None got far but according to Pete they were satisfied with their progress and the rewards they had gained during the delves.

    Her coinage was starting to spread, she knew it was vanity but all her coins bore Ocidon with trident and conch on one face and a leaping dolphin on the other and they had a proper rim to discourage clipping.

    New Town was growing, it now held something that from Pete¡¯s descriptions reminded her of a youth hostel, a couple of taverns, three shops and several houses.

    And now finally her were was on it¡¯s way, luckily they had boarded the Blue Wyvern and she had been able to reassure herself as to their intentions. Ocidon¡¯s reassurances and explanation of the temporary rift between Creevar and Azurea confirmed her decision. Beside the irony of being given what she needed by followers of one of the new gods was delicious.

    Harrassan looked past the three figures bent over the lee rail of the Blue Wyvern at the low lying islands that had climbed over the horizon and were slowly growing larger, they seemed to be headed for the twin towered castle at the south end of the island they were approaching. They had been in the Blue Lagoon dungeon¡¯s domain before the islands became visible on the horizon.

    ¡°Well brother, while we were messing about with two dungeons that kept running away this one was making alliances and playing at politics,¡± observed Sreecator. ¡°Just let me go and heal those three again,¡± he added indicating Avor, Essa and Horaxanna bent over the ship¡¯s rail.

    ¡°What do mean playing politics brother?¡± asked Harrassan as Sreecator approached after easing the grateful sufferers¡¯ sea sickness.

    ¡°Creevar warned me last night. This dungeon is a formal ally of Ocidon and the Old Gods, not a follower or worshiper. An ally. She, and this dungeon is both intelligent and a female, was able to trick both Azurea and the System. She has been rated Elite+ because they couldn¡¯t legally classify her higher. Arranging a crusade to destroy her was flatly vetoed by Ocidon.¡±

    ¡°Does Creevar want us to classify her,¡± asked Harrassan.

    ¡°Creevar No! The team that was sent to evaluate this dungeon about a month after she established herself was the Stinging Hornets. She killed them all in the first encounter. No Creevar wants us to learn what we can and mend bridges in case the New Gods lose favour with the Higher Gods. We are forbidden from antagonising Mary Silvestre, the Blue Lagoon Dungeon.¡±

    ¡°Bah! The Stinging Hornets weren¡¯t as good as us,¡± asserted Harrassan as he watched the ship ease its way into the channel between the islands and glided up to one of the harbour¡¯s two stone piers and docked smoothly.

    ¡°True but they were close.¡±

    They went ashore carrying their prize in a solid bronze cage. The Silver Dolphin was easy, it was the biggest building in the small settlement and the only one to straddle land and sea. The innkeeper seemed to be kind of excitable and disappeared into the underwater part of his establishment when they asked for Thomas Felix.

    A large cat beastfolk male emerged from the pool that served as a stairwell for the underwater part of the inn, shook himself partially dry and approached them. ¡°Morning, I¡¯m Tomcat, sorry I mean Thomas Felix, I see you have completed our quest. Will you sell me the cage, if so how much do you want for it?¡± said Tomcat wile placing a small purse in front of Harrassan.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Harrassan checked the purse and inspected one of the coins and passed it to his brother. ¡°Interesting design, the cage? How about two guilders.¡±

    ¡°Fine, my principal suggested giving you seven imperials as a bonus for a job well done, I hope you¡¯ll accept,¡± said Tomcat slipping two guilders into a second purse and placing next to the first.

    At Harrassan¡¯s nod Tomcat signed the appropriate document signifying a satisfactory completion then gestured to a wolfman sitting nearby, they grabbed the cage and walked away.

    Harrassan looked round at his friends and then went to arrange for a weeks stay with Blacksand.

    While Sreecator visited the local priests of Ocidon on business of their God; Harrassan and the rest of Creevar¡¯s killers plus two wandered around Silverton, met with a dwarf who had set up shop to buy mithril, apparently one of the local fish had mithril teeth and decided to visit the so called Children¡¯s Island. It was the small island on the other side of the channel to the harbour and they had noticed many of the local children swimming across every day.

    They found the empty dungeon that was the target for the island¡¯s children but the first room wasn¡¯t empty. I contained a golden haired wolf woman chained to the chest she was sitting on. Offered help, she smiled and told them Mary wanted to try something and she was helping out.

    The first lot of children soon arrived and were greeted by ¡°Rapunzel¡± who explained the wicked witch had just chained her up and could they help free her by finding the key to the lock in one of the rooms below.

    The children disappeared with squeals of joy and soon reappeared carrying a key and ¡°Rapunzel¡± was soon freed, she threw open the chest and distributed the treasure, toffee apples one to each of her excited rescuers, then she took out a book, ¡°look a fable from Mary¡¯s former world,¡± and she opened it and started to read.

    ¡°Lessa woke, cold.¡±

    Harrassan and his friends explored the rest of the dungeon, perused the tales and left an enthralled audience listning to a woman reading an unbelievable tale.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    After well over a months travel Hell¡¯s Mouth finally lost his patience and despite being fifty kilometres from the spot he had intended to settle in he started building his dungeon. He started with six very scanty floors of only three rooms each. He decided to settle his goblins with an admixture of the creatures he had learned so as to be able to gift his decoy dungeon on the first two floors. The third and fourth levels would initially hold goblins and demons. The last two would hold his undead and demons.

    After a rest Hell¡¯s Mouth started expanding and populating his level, the sixth. At Arborgar¡¯s insistence he changed his focus to his first floor, adding rooms, traps and reluctantly, goblins.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Well another day of school was in the past, as she walked up to her new vehicle she spotted two guys studying it. She slowed slightly then realized that her jeep had acquired two admirers and she couldn¡¯t resist a chuckle. With her height and strong heavy boned frame she had no male admirers ¨C thank god ¨C but it would appear her meticulously restored jeep did, and not just humans.

    ¡®Gotta jerk their beep chains, maybe if I suggest fuzzy dice an¡¯ paintin¡¯ it pink!¡¯

    ¡°... yeah gramps, and yeah its got that too...¡± The big teen said into his phone while the smaller boy passed a gentle hand over one of the front mudguards.

    ¡°Hi, what¡¯s so interesting?¡± Mary asked as she strolled up.

    ¡°Hi, um... we¡¯re waiting to talk with the guy that owns this jeep.¡±

    Mary couldn¡¯t help smiling, ¡°yeh, well my brother gave it to me, I agree it¡¯s not very girly, maybe if I added pink fuzzy dice an¡¯ painted if a bright pink...¡± and collapsed against her jeep in helpless laughter at their horrified faces. ¡°Sorry... sorry but I just couldn¡¯t help myself...¡± she laughed again, ¡°oh man! your faces, but you¡¯re right this little beauty gonna remain¡¯ green.¡±

    ¡°Is it...¡± started to ask the smaller teen.

    ¡°It¡¯s a fully restored genuine 1968 M38A1 Truck, Utility: 1/4 ton, 4x4, or Willys MD,¡± said Mary remembering Flip¡¯s friend telling her the same thing.

    ¡°That¡¯s the Marine model isn¡¯t it? Oh sorry the name¡¯s Tip Kowalski,¡± asked Tip feeling a little disconcerted at having to look up slightly to meet a girl¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Dunno, have to ask Flip that.¡± Mary chucked her bag and fishing gear in the back and allowed the boys twenty minutes to inspect her latest pride and joy even opening the hood to allow them to inspect the engine.

    She even gave in to Tip¡¯s pleading and gave him a lift to his grandfather¡¯s where she spent another half hour listening to the old mans reminiscences about his time in the marines before managing to escape for some much needed relaxation with rod and line.

 Chapter 23

    Trisha finally resolved to confront Mary about her plans, so she went through the usual long search to find Mary¡¯s current location in the lagoon. She had become reconciled to the fact that Mary wasn¡¯t going to hide her core at the end of a series of fortified caverns. The fact that she, with a link to Mary required a long search to actually locate Mary¡¯s core suggested that Mary might be right not to place herself where she could be easily found.

    ? Yep, an¡¯ I can get someone to move me outa the lagoon an¡¯ then they¡¯ll have a cylinder of ocean over twenty-five kilometres in diameter to search. ?

    Trisha sighed, and settled herself carefully between two of the big rays buried in the sand near Mary¡¯s core. ¡°Just what are you planning Mary, I know now, I guess I always knew your plans were different than any other dungeon I¡¯ve ever heard off, but...¡±

    ? Hey Trish, my beep plans when we first met were far simpler than now. First and foremost is survival, yours and mine, now that includes a few more people. ?

    ¡°Lots more surely, from the way...¡±

    ? Na, got something broken in me, always had, wouldn¡¯t really miss most of the folk in my domain, I try to compensate yanno, but only a few folk ¡®sides you and ¡®Drina matter enough to me to be missed. ?

    Trisha could almost sense the sadness behind that statement. So after a moment¡¯s silence she returned to her original line of inquiry. ¡°So plans.¡±

    ? Short term? Well I¡¯d like to give all who live within my domain a fair an¡¯ prosperous life, an¡¯ to give their kids a good education whether they want one or not. Clever well-read people will make my plans much easier to achieve. Oh, and to establish an armed merchant marine. ?

    There followed a short pause before Mary resumed.

    ? Medium term? Want a prosperous corner of the ocean with political influence if not control in the surrounding towns an¡¯ settlements. Tha¡¯ means no pirates, getting¡¯ the law to be at most open to influence, an¡¯ not for sale to the highest bidder an¡¯ hopefully fairer government, fairer ¡®caus government¡¯s never goin¡¯ to be fair. ?

    Trisha was stunned, this seemed reckless in the extreme to her.

    ? Long term? Those are nebulous, but at the least, Assist Ocidon an¡¯ his allies to end this beep beep ice age Parthia is currently in. I can¡¯t enjoy life in a frozen wilderness, ¡®m not the Ice Queen. ?

    ¡°And... and Ocidon knows...¡± Trisha sputtered.

    ? Yes, shared lots about Ice ages an¡¯ beep climate change, knowledge from my old world, lots is rubbish but there¡¯s a lot of hard data there. Ocidon¡¯s confident we can do it, might take a thousand years, might take less but it¡¯s doable. ?

    ¡°So you intend to become the ruler of this area of the ocean? That could be dangerous, the guild is bound to object.¡±

    ? Beep no! Power behind the throne or thrones yeah, sitting up front as the ruler, no way in beep! ?

    ¡°What about you? Your dungeon, your security?¡±

    ? Well, we¡¯re still vulnerable to aerial assault, the sea wyverns help, but they too are vulnerable. As for the deeps, shallow waters and surface of the ocean I am sure we¡¯re safe. Anyway I have a few other ideas I¡¯m working on at the moment. ?If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°What about New Town and their adventurers.¡±

    ? The biggest beep danger there is complacency, none of them has penetrated far against my standard patrols, I have to convince myself that not all beep adventurers are as weak and useless as that lot. ?

    * * *

    Harrassan was standing with his brother and Horaxanna in what passed for Silverton¡¯s common.

    ¡°So is your business with the temple concluded satisfactorily?¡± Harrassan asked his brother.

    ¡°Yes, well not entirely satisfactory but we did agree to all Creevar wanted even if not to everything he wished for.¡± Sreecator paused briefly as he studied the flag flying over the town hall, ¡°you know that¡¯s the dungeon¡¯s flag.¡±

    ¡°What! Since when has a dungeon felt the need for a flag, surely you mean it¡¯s the flag the locals chose to represent their community,¡± interjected Horaxanna.

    ¡°No I¡¯m afraid not, that¡¯s the flag the dungeon chose for herself.¡±

    They stood for a while in companionable silence; Harrassan and Sreecator watching the Sea Sprite entering harbour while Horaxanna studied the buildings around her.

    ¡°More beastfolk, I¡¯ve never seen so many before,¡± murmured Harrassan to his brother who simply nodded.

    ¡°By the way the local high priest of this temple almost had a fit when I suggested that this would make a suitable neutral location for a meeting. Creevar was right, this dungeon is firmly aligned with Ocidon.¡±

    They confirmed their passage back to Drakoton and confirmed they¡¯d be abroad the Sea Sprite one hour after dawn on the morrow and returned to their inn.

    * * *

    Danilus Oakborn watched Sreecator leave his office in bemusement, he strode out of his office and gathered up two of his acolytes and they were soon heading to their temple.

    Danilus led a short service to calm his nerves; he was watched by a couple of curious young dolphins who scattered when he was done.

    Then he explained the offer that Creevar had had his priest relay for a formal meeting in this temple.

    ? Danilus you have done well, I will agree to this meeting, advise Creevars priest that I will await him here in twenty days time at local noon. ?

    Danilus bowed his head in respect to the representation of his god standing behind the altar.

    ? And don¡¯t forget to tell that imp of curiosity the Voice of the dungeon. ?

    During the swim back to their home Danilus asked his acolytes if they had found anyone on the island that had a vocation. A rather slow exchange of ideas followed.

    Danilus diverted to the Silver Dolphin Inn to inform Sreecator of Ocidon¡¯s acceptance, then he returned to the fortress he called home and informed the Voice.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Grraafgor sniffed the air carefully, something was wrong, something was not the same. He checked his longbow over carefully, made sure the string was sound and that the arrows were loose in his quiver.

    Then he moved forward slowly, his ears twitching uneasily as he moved closer to whatever was causing his back to shiver in apprehension.

    Grraafgor more sensed than saw the cave ahead of him; it was a combination of a musty smell mixed with the sharp scent of goblins with an undertone of infernal sulphur and the absence of any echoes in that direction. His eyes were only able to distinguish a vague blur at that distance but when he caught the sound of racing heartbeats in the entrance of the cave paired with a spike in the scent of goblins he knew he had been detected and that the goblins were hostile.

    Two arrows aimed at the centre of the sound of the beating hearts settled that problem but Graafgor made tracks for home to lay the problem in his chief¡¯s hands.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Another oyster, another pearl. Dancer had shown her his private oyster bed today, she was staggered at how fast she could move through the sea now and how long she could hold her breath. The fact she could talk to Dancer was the icing on the cake.

    The blue notices kept coming thick and fast, skills, swimming, diving languages: dolphin natch, and cetacean. Whale song held the occasional words now. New level, stats all sorts.

    She would try and find some time to really dig into the messages, maybe understand what was happening to her and a few of her acquaintances, but after the Con, maybe when she went on her mandated visit to her father in Florida.

 Chapter 24

    Mary had cracked it, she called in her rats and after gaining their consent and inducing sleep in her creations and test subjects started tinkering. The upgrade proceeded well with only a few minor hiccups that she was able to fix. The result, twenty of what could be called ratweres; big headed intelligent rats that could change their forms into very human looking miniature humanoids. Both forms were fast healing but not to the point of regeneration. Mary decided to go with her creations preferred name for themselves of rat-men and was amused to note that the ladies were the proud possessors of six breasts apiece, larger on top then smaller and smaller below. In their humanoid form they tended to long sharp noses and slightly receding chins.

    The only change she made to their minds, was to add the skill needed to control the change.

    Now to figure out how to allow them to assume near human size, however she was not very hopeful that that would be possible due to the massive difference in mass between the forms.

    When they woke, Steve and Victoria the two named leaders of rat-men thanked their creator and retired to their rooms to practice and relax before their next mission.

    Next decision, who to use to head up her takeover of Port Salvage. Mary quickly determined that no one who looked to her currently was suitable, so that left a new member of one of her intelligent races, the octopi were out for obvious reasons, the man-rats also, though Victoria was devious enough to use as an advisor. Beastman, cat or wolf? Wolf was probably better under the circumstances. So skill templates available. Mmm time to annoy bluey by getting his input.

    So Paris Wolfman was born named for the famous Trojan prince. Damn but she could have sworn Bluey had enjoyed himself helping her in cobbling up the skillset template for a revolutionary leader and politician. Mary made sure not to lose it, she was certain she would need it again.

    For a personal staff Paris selected two beastman warriors and an islander, formerly a slave of the pirates. They conferred with Victoria and her rats learning as much as possible about the dissatisfied of Port Salvage before heading out.

    Just one day out from Port Salvage the Sea Sprite was met by the man-rat¡¯s catamaran with news. It appeared that setting fire to three warehouses full of flammable loot in a ramshackle wooden town most of whose inhabitants were roaring drunk was not a good idea. The fire had spread and only the fact that it was at night and the wind was blowing offshore had saved anything. Several of the pirates ships that had been docked had also burned. The rumours the rats had picked up suggested that Vinculus the Red was dead or had fled and three factions were currently battling for supremacy in what was left of the town.

    Paris Wolfman grinned savagely, ¡°this could play into our hands, if we inflame the flames we could get the pirates to thin their numbers while building up a base among what passes for law abiding citizens in this cesspit of a town by helping to rebuild the waterfront.¡±

    Paris nodded to the captain of the man-rats catamaran, ¡°can you carry a message to Mary asking her to dispatch some reinforcements including a few builders. Maybe some more man-rats and another catamaran to facilitate communications.¡±

    * * *Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    The news that their Gods would be physically present at a set location on a predetermined time caused a great deal of furore amongst the temples of Ocidon and Creevar. Several High Priests scrambled to find excuses to be present. The holy Anchor of Ocidon and the high hierophant of Creevar with bodyguards and attendants were determined to be present.

    Sanderson the Wise, the High Priest of the Temple of Ocidon at Garonmouth beat them all, he arrived with his secretary and a mere two guards full of smiles with the avowed aim to raise the three deserving acolytes to the priesthood. Danilus was not fooled but appreciated the sentiment so in an impressive and well attended ceremony Bertina, Faaron ¨C much to his surprise ¨C and Sirvanus were raised to the priesthood.

    Naturally Sanderson felt entitled to a rest, and since the meeting of the two Gods would occur in a few days it would be rude to leave.

    The next to arrive was Belatrix Anchor of the Deep, co-leader of the faith of Ocidon, a very large and erudite squid who was soon in deep conversation with Pete and Shirley. It would be safe to say he was giving Mary ideas.

    The holy Anchor of Ocidon and the high hierophant of Creevar with their extensive entourages arrived together on Captain Tomcat¡¯s Blue Wyvern.

    Room was found for all these important visitors at the cost of temporarily turfing out the regular inhabitants of apartments and rooms at the fortress with the remainder being housed at the Spirit Dolphin Inn.

    The meeting went smoothly with all present being allowed to see their Gods before leaving their various High Priests to witness the historic meeting. Nothing was decided, no firm agreements were made, however the Gods did come to a vague agreement; not to disagree and to work for the good of the world. A suitably vague start to a possible rapprochement in the future.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    The scouting party for the Fast Killers desert ork tribe were easily able to confirm Grraafgor¡¯s finding, they ventured a few chambers into the dungeon before withdrawing after their shaman had gained everything he wanted. They carried away one victim of a pitfall trap not being willing to give the dungeon any information they might need to bargain with.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    ¡°No way...¡± Mary mentally censored herself not wanting to go beep yet again, ¡°¡¯K the Con starts tomorrow but I¡¯m not goin¡¯ to be ready for a tour round a load of dusty historical sites at seven thirty!¡± She looked at an eager Flip, ¡°An¡¯ ¡®fore you say it mama¡¯s from Fiji an¡¯ papa¡¯s from New Mexico, neither are from Hawaii, just us ¡®cause we were lucky enough to be born here.¡±

    Flip deflated visibly. ¡°Hey Flip, you like that kind of stuff, so go, I can find something to do tomorrow mornin¡¯ just not at seven thirty.¡±

    The long anticipated Thursday finally arrived and Mary wandered down for breakfast shortly before nine. So food and coffee or should that be coffee and food and check the schedule. The walking tour, well it was already past nine so that left the Educators¡¯ & Academics¡¯ Coffee Hour at ten.

    ¡®Well that was interestin¡¯,¡¯ thought Mary as she wandered away to gaze out at the sea. Then she wandered round looking at whatever took her fancy. The place was getting decidedly busy...

    ? Jackpot! ?

    Another of those blue messages, she had flicked it away before the message registered. She found a wall and leaned against it just gazing into the distance, ¡®Jackpot, just what did that mean?¡¯

    She had enjoyed Kalepa Baybayan¡¯s Hawaiian Wayfinding conference and at around four she came across Flip again as he was leaving the room where he¡¯d been attending something called Living in SciFi Simulations.

    ¡°So hows it goin¡¯ Flip?¡±

    ¡°Great Sis, hey lets grab a burger then you¡¯re coming with me, you¡¯ll just love the panel on Influence of Modern Day Gaming.¡±

    Mary sighed in resignation and accompanied her brother, but he was right, it was fascinating in a gruesome kind of way as first the attendees sitting near her starting stabbing at the air in front of their faces then it spread and everyone was doing it, even the panellists. She caught several comments about great tech and cool special effects.

    ¡®Yeah! Jackpot indeed!¡¯ she thought slumping down in her seat.

 Chapter 25

    ? So Pete how are things going in New Town lately, how are they finding the dungeon delving side of things? Still happy? ?

    ¡°I think they are satisfied, I arrways refuse any offers to join a party, Wife with kids on the way after arr.¡±

    ? Ah yes, is Shirley happy? I don¡¯t have to assure you again that neither of you are going to die do I? ?

    ¡°No, my survivarr rraid that fear to rest. Can you do something about this accent, this rr business sucks.¡±

    ? Think so. Oh, warn Shirley there will be a lot fewer eggs than with normal octopi, it was necessary to ensure Shirley could survive. You will both be around to look after the young ones after all. ?

    ¡°Thanks for the warning. As to the adventurers in New Town, they are happy with the rewards but a bit frustrated at their rrack of progress.¡±

    ? Sigh! ... They¡¯re barely scratching my outer defences as it is, can¡¯t they handle teamwork! Look Pete, can you sneak in another notice? I think they need to be informed that if teams of five or six can¡¯t cut it I wouldn¡¯t object to double or even triple teams. I suspect however my next layer of defences would stop even an enlarged team in its tracks. ?

    He he he he! ¡°Yes I courrd, their defences are not set up with me in mind.¡±

    So two days later when Sildanus arrived to open up the adventurer¡¯s guild he found a poster lying on the reception desk, it read:

    ¡®Attention Adventurers of New Town

    Be it known that the Blue Lagoon Dungeon

    will not object to teams of up to eighteen individuals.

    But please be aware that the next layer of defences

    are considerably more dangerous.

    Signed: Mary Silvestre

    Blue Lagoon Dungeon.¡¯

    Sildanus made a copy and used the guild messaging system to send the copy with an attached note explaining how he came by it in the first place to his regional HQ.

    Then he called in his friends and teammates to decide what to do about this unexpected notification, and about the fact that the bloody dungeon had agents that could just waltz into his guild building unannounced and undetected.

    They displayed the poster clearly in reception and took another copy for their records.

    The first combined party left to challenge the dungeon later that same day but got little further than usual as teamwork broke down completely, they returned to lick their wounds in the tavern, enrich the local alchemist and make plans.

    * * *Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Paris Wolfman and his minions soon settled in a partially burnt out house that according to the man-rats was currently ownerless. They started to clean it up and patch some of the worst of the damage. They made themselves welcome amongst the somewhat singed locals of the area by helping out occasionally and sharing food with some of the worst off.

    When reinforcements arrived they claimed a small burnt out lot that seemed to have no claimants and stated to build a store with attached habitation and barracks. A set of cellars were dug and the lower levels were turned over to the man-rats.

    The leader of the most successful gang battling for supremacy was assassinated in his sleep causing his fraction to fragment amidst power plays and recriminations. Paris needed the chaos to continue, it was giving his people valuable experience and gaining them popularity by keeping the worst of the fighting out of the rapidly recovering dock and its associated commercial area.

    Already Paris was getting feelers from other areas of the town. It was taking time but his plans were going well, Victoria¡¯s man-rats were truly invaluable and she was really shrewd. Pity she was so small.

    However, he knew the easy times were coming to an end, he sent a message to Mary asking for more fighters. The people he had been able to recruit were not really up to facing the pirates, and while the tactics and discipline Mary insisted on seemed to work in small engagements he was not sure what would happen in the big brawl that was coming.

    * * *

    Creevar, god of spies, shadows and secrets had been keeping an eye on the dungeon, or rather her activities since his meeting with Ocidon. He was truly impressed with the activities and abilities of the man-rats. He managed to get one of his priests to meet one, the recruiting drive failed miserably as he had expected. It irked, Ocidon was the God of the seas and earthquakes, not spies and here he was with a race of almost perfect spies. Time to send someone to bargain with Mary Silvestre.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    A small settlement had sprung up outside the new dungeon, several groups of adventurers had ventured within, the assortment of creatures that populated the first level didn¡¯t cause much trouble but the tactics of the kobolds and jackals on the second level had everyone stopped.

    Sandrinna had used the energy from the delvers to excavate a further two levels though she had yet to decide how to populate them.

    Erekos? and Ermizhad¡¯s nocturnal scouting flights kept her appraised of local conditions and the growth of the settlement that was currently entirely dependant on her for its water. It looked like the settlement was going to surround her only known entrance.

    Sandrinna and Darkmoon sensing the local¡¯s frustration decided to modify her dungeon when she hit level six by adding an easier second level and moving the remaining levels down.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Friday saw Mary awake and waiting in the Mauni Lani lobby before seven, proof that it was not the hour but the proposed activity that motivated her. She was not going to miss the proposed Snorkel Tour on the Kohala Coast with the Kohala Divers aboard the Namaka.

    Mary relegated her snorkel and mask to the boat finding it easier to see and dive without them. The fish were plentiful, and a few turtles were spotted. The real excitement was the appearance of a pod of dolphins who inspected the swimmers and hung around frolicking through the waves until the swimmers returned to the Namaka.

    Quarter to one saw her back in the con and talking with Flip and ¨C to her surprise ¨C Dr Cassiopeia Merrow and a couple of Flip¡¯s friends. The second time someone almost poked her she sighed and said, ¡°Hey guys, you don¡¯t have to poke the screens, just look at the option you want and think the response.¡±

    ¡°That can¡¯t possibly work, the tech wouldn¡¯t be able to...¡± said Flip.

    ¡°Hey, that works, thanks Mary,¡± exclaimed one of the anonymous males.

    Flip squinted, then blinked, ¡°yeah it does, how can they pick up that kind of signal?¡±

    ¡°Brace yourselves guys, they¡¯re not special effects,¡± she paused for a few seconds. ¡°I suspect we¡¯ll be living with them for a fair while.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± asked Cas.

    ¡°Um... the blue boxes,¡± explained the other anonymous male.

    ¡°Blue boxes, right! Hey girl you coming to the Young Creators'' Share-a-thon?¡±

    ¡°Do they have anything of interest?¡±

    ¡°Not really Mary but there are a few people I think you should meet,¡± replied Cas.

 Chapter 26

    Creevar¡¯s Killers plus two were attacking their breakfast vigorously in the common room of their usual lodgings when staying in Vaidon, the town that hosted Creevar¡¯s High Temple on Parthia.

    They were engaged in gently teasing Evor and Essa who had given in to the inevitable and accepted the class of Scout from the System. Further teasing got them to accept, reluctantly, a second visit to the nearby public baths.

    Sreecator gave Harrassan a discrete signal and the two remained behind as their friends departed in search of hot water.

    Sreecator sipped his tea, ¡°Creevar visited me in my dreams again last night, I have to return to that dungeon.¡±

    ¡°What! Why?¡± asked Harrassan.

    Sreecator shrugged, ¡°the dungeon has something he wants.¡±

    ¡°Right, so we have to go back.¡±

    ¡°Well I have to, I think I should take one of the guys for company. Why don¡¯t the rest of you see to prying the twins out of the desert. They have proved very useful in handling supplies, maintaining our camps and ferreting odd but useful titbits of information.¡±

    Harrassan thought about it for a short time, ¡°take, no, take Zashaan.¡±

    ¡°I was thinking Horaxanna.¡±

    ¡°Me too but then I remembered how seasick she gets even on the calmest of seas.¡±

    * * *

    Mary watched the second attempt by the fifteen strong band of adventurers from New Town. The two standard patrols functioned perfectly, a few careful attacks from ink clouds and then a withdrawal to find reinforcements under those same ink clouds.

    The fight against one of the reinforced patrols was brutal but the adventurers did overcome though they needed several potions to fully recover from the fight.

    They finally managed to cross her outer perimeter, and they were headed towards one of her sea serpents.

    Oh yes it had been fun creating those, starting with a venomous snake she had found swimming from one island to another, mapping the things DNA, mixing and matching with an eel for improved swimming ability, a foolish New Town sea elf for dual lung and gill system and her wyvern for scales and some inspired tinkering to boost its size and the potency of its poison and lace its scales with carbon nanotubes.

    The Adventurers were certainly surprised when the three squid that preceded and partially hid her half grown serpent inked the water and instead of barracuda the modest sized ¨C a mere twenty meters long ¨C sea serpent shot out of the spreading ink cloud and attacked them.

    Mary studied the fight closely, her creation for the most part worked well, it would need some more work to eliminate a couple of bugs and to improve its best points.

    The adventurers were able to overwhelm it but at a cost, two of their number wouldn¡¯t be returning under their own power.Stolen novel; please report.

    Mary decided to be generous though if the serpent had had its planned attendants the party would have been virtually annihilated as they had lost all attempt at a defensive formation. She dropped two pearls and three imperials, that with the sea serpent¡¯s corpse should be a generous plenty.

    She still couldn¡¯t believe how easy it was to defeat these adventurers. How the beep was she to both lay out a decent challenge and maintain an adequate defence. The two were incompatible.

    ¡®Hmmm... maybe if I expand my domain a bit more and withdraw my real defences a bit, I can create a thick outer layer with tissue paper defences.¡¯

    * * *

    Rap¡¯ody the elected leader of the raid group arranged for the bodies of his two deceased raid members to be hurried to the Temple of Ocidon for resurrection then went to find the recently confirmed guildmaster Sildanus to report on their recent attempt on the dungeon and to hand over the body of the new monster for assessment and valuation.

    Rap¡¯ody related the result of their excursion, the outer band with the usual mix of defenders that refused to press their attack against a unified party that confronted them, their withdrawal to a second zone with larger bands, bands that also included larger and more powerful monsters then the third area with the Sea Serpent.

    Sildanus was shaken when he saw the body of the sea serpent, the thing was a reptile with gills and very snakelike. All present discussed the thing and possible tactics that could be used against it. The presence of this thing in what the guild arbitrarily decided was the dungeon¡¯s third level underscored its classification of Elite+.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    After learning of their Shaman¡¯s findings and deductions the Fast Killers tribal leaders were unanimous in deciding to move. The new dungeon just didn¡¯t smell right, all they¡¯d found on their admittedly brief exploration were desert creatures and goblins but their sensitive noses said undead, powerful undead and demons.

    As a preliminary precaution they packed up and moved to the furthest ¨C from the dungeon and civilization ¨C source of water they knew. Once settled at their temporary encampment the scouts went out well laden with water to look for a decent source far from the new dungeon. The chief also sent out a couple of messengers to warn the two other tribes they had amicable relations with.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    They were flying home after the Con, both siblings were feeling cramped despite the Hawaiiand Airlines jet they were on being roomy compared to most commercial airliners.

    ¡°So Mary, how come you knew so much about the blue screen thing? Come on spill.¡±

    ¡°Well Flip, I¡¯ve been seein¡¯ them for a while, something that calls itself ¡®The System¡¯ uses them to communicate an¡¯ inform.¡±

    Phil paused and thought about what to say, ¡°So sis, exactly how long is some time and how has this thing affected you?¡±

    ¡°Um... I have gained ... skills and abilities as I ... level up. For example I can stay underwater for over five minutes now and I seem to be able cut through the sea like a fish. And ... I think I can talk with and understand dolphins,¡± Mary finished in a rush.

    ¡°So... a week ago I would have thought you were going mad sis but ... Um, when exactly did this begin and what does the um... system think you are?¡±

    ¡°Shortly after our visit to aunty Vera. Just a few weeks after that. Bluey, show my status to Flip.¡±

    Phil looked over his sister''s information thoughtfully before dismissing the screen. ¡°Um... I wonder what will happen to the guys that chose races other than human?¡±

    Mary jerked upright in her seat before slumping back in her seat and looked at her brother in horror. ¡®Bluey? Is that possible?¡¯

    ? They insisted on being given that option. They will change over the next few days. ?

    ¡°Oh beep!¡±

    ¡°Why are you always going beep? I never minded your swearing.¡±

    Mary glared into the distance, ¡°blame Bluey, I mean the System, not my choice. An¡¯ ¡®cording to Bluey they will change over the next few days.¡±

    The siblings remained silent for the rest of the flight trying to figure out how this was going to affect them as no way would the media and government not investigate everyone who attended the Con when some of its attendees started to change into hobbits, elves, dwarves and other stranger things.

 Chapter 27

    Ruvius Inkweaver meandered absently into Sarannas¡¯ office.

    Sarannas eyed him with exasperation, ¡°anything new to report Ruvius?¡±

    ¡°Um, oh, er yes, that snake thing that the New Town guild sent us for evaluation,¡± answered Ruvius as he gazed blankly at his assistant guildmaster.

    Sarannas sighed, ¡°yes Ruvius, what about it. The sea serpent right.¡±

    ¡°Um, er... well the thing was young, we could tell by the skeleton that it had not finished growing, oh and it has lungs as well as gills.¡±

    Sarannas fumed silently, getting a complete report from this idiot was like pulling teeth. ¡°So it can venture ashore for a while and it might grow a bit more, anything else?¡±

    Ruvius blinked at her in confusion, ¡°no, no it could double in size and it would be fully at home on land, it¡¯s basically a snake. Nasty poison too.¡±

    ¡°Wait a minute, that thing was twenty meters long. Are you saying it could reach forty meters?¡±

    ¡°Oh at least, maybe fifty. Its scales aren¡¯t enchanted but they have some strange material woven through them that makes them very strong and somewhat flexible too,¡± Ruvius finished with a grin of satisfaction.

    ¡°So when can I have your official report on this new dungeon monster.¡±

    Ruvius looked confused as he frantically searched his memory, ¡°Err... what new dungeon monster?¡±

    Sarannas sighed again, ¡°the snake, the gigantic sea snake!¡±

    ¡°But... but it isn¡¯t... it doesn¡¯t have the receptors that allow a dungeon evolved monster to use a dungeon¡¯s domain and mana to overcome the inherent incompatibilities that inhibit a viable...¡± Ruvius paused on seeing Sarannas¡¯ eyes glaze. ¡°It¡¯s a reptile, a normal animal, if you dropped in Garonmouth... um... it wouldn¡¯t fit, but outside town it would thrive,¡± he finished with a beaming smile.

    Sarannas closed her eyes for a moment seeking patience then after double-checking to assure herself that Ruvius had divulged all he knew she dismissed him with a renewed demand for a written report.

    Ruvius left Sarannas¡¯s office turned right and wandered along for a while before stopping, looking vaguely around, turning round and walking past her office once again on his way to his lab.

    Not long after guildmaster Sofos Ironfist came close to exploding. ¡°Right that does it! Upgrade that damn dungeon, if it can create new races then... Arrgh, rerate it Godlike.¡±

    * * *

    Sreecator and Zashaan were soon back in the Blue Lagoon dungeon where as a first order of business they sought out the dungeon¡¯s Voice. Despite his last visit Sreecator had not expected Alessandrina.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Grumbling to himself about eccentric dungeons and gods who were over fond of secrets and enjoyed surprising his followers Sreecator set about explaining his mission.

    ¡°So Creevar wants some man-rats of his own. Mary might agree if her man-rats agree but all the man-rats currently worship Ocidon. Mary says we need to confer with a priest of Ocidon, ideally either Danilus Oakborn or Altor Seaswept.

    The meeting took an hour to arrange and both Danilus and Altor were present together with a scribe in the special meeting room under the fort.

    The Voice opened the meeting by stating Mary¡¯s views. ¡°If Creevar can locate and provide a spell, enchantment or potion that will enable the man-rats achieve human or near human size for a limited time then Mary Silvestre as the Blue Lagoon Dungeon would agree to introduce a number of man-rats to Creevar or one of his representatives. The man-rats would be urged but not forced to accept Creevar¡¯s offer.¡±

    Altor spoke for Ocidon, ¡°the man-rats all worship Ocidon, Ocidon is willing for the ones under discussion to worship Creevar so long as they can still worship him.¡±

    Sreecator listened to his god, ¡°Creevar agrees so long as you give him three years to find this enchantment. Creevar would need at least forty man-rats.¡±

    The Voice smiled, ¡°Mary says that she considers a promise from a god to be binding so she will have fifty man-rats ready to hear Creevar¡¯s offer in one weeks time.¡±

    Danilus, Altor and Sreecator stated, ¡°Agreed!¡± almost as one.

    * * * INTERLUDE * * *

    As Mary parked her jeep in Kahului Airport¡¯s main car park she thanked her lucky stars that the work on the parking areas seemed to have almost finished. She fed a bit more of that ¨C mana ¨C well, Bluey said it was mana, so why not believe him, into the anti-theft and anti-vandalism ¨C spell, no not spell, enchantment. She wished ill of any sticky fingered mal-intentioned being that touched her prize.

    She walked towards the terminal and smiled as she passed Flip¡¯s Chevrolet Malibu, in her eyes it somehow seemed to lack character. She continued on her way slightly resenting a Saturday away from the beach but she didn¡¯t often see her father now that he lived in Florida with his new girlfriend and her daughter.

    She joined Flip who was waiting patiently in arrivals.

    ¡°Hi Sis, sorry for not giving you a lift but with Dad and his new family we wouldn¡¯t have fitted.¡±

    ¡°¡¯K Flip, I agree. Um... any of your friends changed?¡±

    Flip sighed deeply, ¡°Yeah, Morry¡¯s gotten thinner and taller and his ears are long and pointed, even his hair¡¯s changing colour. He¡¯s in thehospital panicking.¡±

    ¡°¡¯K, an¡¯ the CDC an¡¯ the feds¡¯ll be runnin¡¯ round like headless chickens. They¡¯ll soon figure out everyone involved got it at the Con, then they¡¯ll panic. A potentially infectious... Hey look there¡¯s dad!¡± And Mary started waving.

    ¡°Flip we¡¯ll havta be careful what we say to the feds.¡±

    ¡°Yeah sis, we¡¯ll say as little as we can get away with.¡±

    * * *

    Meanwhile, in Atlanta at the HQ of the CDC a neatly dressed man walked briskly down a corridor and rapped at a door.

    ¡°Come in Dr Jones.¡±

    ¡°Morning sir, you wanted to see me?¡±

    The grey haired man behind the desk gestured at a bulging folder on his desk as he asked his visitor to sit.

    ¡°Got a weird one for you Jones, there have been over fifty cases over the last few days of people undergoing extreme morphological changes, the worrying part is they all attended the recent HawaiiCon and in at least two cases infected friends who had not attended. All the information we have is in that, and copies of everything are in the external drive that is also in there. Get your team up and running and take charge of this case please.¡±

    Dr Jones shuddered, his son had attended that con and was currently flying back to Atlanta with his mother.

    ¡°Yes sir, I¡¯ll get right on it, anything else of note?¡±

    ¡°Most of the attendees we have interviewed are having hallucinatory episodes, they complain of seeing blue screens.¡±

 Chapter 28

    Port Salvage was reeling, the vicious inter pirate war had lasted a month and showed no signs of ending anytime soon. The bands of pirates were running short of resources and were ¨C unbelievably ¨C getting more vicious. By now virtually everyone that wasn¡¯t associated with one of the pirate bands had left the parts of the city they controlled. Most had relocated to the former dock and commercial districts that were quickly being fortified, restored and expanded.

    The newly named Seafront District was controlled by a triumvirate consisting of Daorn, a chandler who represented the former honest inhabitants of the district, Paris Wolfman, a newcomer who controlled a small but highly disciplined band of fighters and coordinated the districts defence and Feranna who represented the recent additions to the district from the rest of the town. This triumvirate bound themselves to listen to the concerns of a small freely elected council.

    Paris was currently conferring with his friend Victoria in the hidden room beneath his shop.

    ¡°So the first shipment of food and goods will arrive within the week and your scouts are sure that the so called Sea Bastards will attack in force when they realize we have supplies?¡±

    ¡°Yes we¡¯re sure of that. They¡¯re hungry now and will soon be starving. Also any of those mobs that manages to gain control of this enclave will win this pointless war,¡± noted Victoria.

    ¡°Not pointless, give us another month and Port Salvage will be pirate free. Now how will we recognise our creator¡¯s ship?¡±

    ¡°Mary said that the Wave Skimmer is a ¡®three-masted Bermuda-rigged schooner¡¯ so I would expect a three masted fast strange looking ship.¡±

    ¡°Well that¡¯s some help, but what¡¯s a schooner?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I will soon,¡± Victoria grinned.

    Paris lost no time in advising his fellow triumvirs of the expected arrival of the Wave Skimmer. Then he prepared his people for the expected invasion from the desperate pirates.

    The Wave Skimmer was an eye opener; she came sailing into the harbour closer into the wind than anything Paris had previously seen with the exception of the man-rats catamarans. It was openly flying the blue-green flag with the white dolphin. The local stevedores muttered in appreciation mixed with disapproval for the unorthodox sail plan.

    The Wave Skimmer was quickly unloaded and the goods for the most part disappeared into Paris Wolfman¡¯s shop, the remainder of the cargo that according to the captain had been added to fill his ship was offered for sale on the quay and was quickly sold. The purser sat at a desk by the gangplank and took orders for delivery within the month. Several disgruntled locals booked passage to Drakoton.

    The Wave Skimmer left on the tide, with all sail set she left harbour rapidly gaining speed with many passengers and ballast. Paris didn¡¯t watch it go he was engaged in setting an ambush for the upcoming attack and setting a small party in place to take out the scout group from one of the larger and more organised bands. Thanks to Victoria and her spies and scouts he knew exactly what was planned but given the chaotic state of today¡¯s enemies he didn¡¯t fully trust them to follow their plan.

    Fortunately everything went reasonably well, the new recruits with a thin sprinkling of veterans to stiffen them performed brilliantly from behind their barricades, firing their three loaded crossbows one after the other. The attack on the barricades broke as the pirates unused to take heavy casualties fell back only to be hit from behind by his well trained soldiers.

    The Sea Bastards were crippled. Paris Wolfman decided to accept his army commander¡¯s suggestion and allowed Major Samuel to lead his soldiers to finish the job and free the few prisoners the knew were being held by the Sea Bastards.

    By the end of the day the Sea Bastards were no more, and the scouts from the Bloody Daggers had likewise been annihilated. Fifteen poor souls had been freed and the Seafront district had expanded.

    The Seafront District celebrated quietly, contact with the outside world had been resumed and one of the more savage pirate bands had been destroyed.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    * * *

    Sreecator and Zashaan had been able to persuade forty-three of the man-rats the dungeon had made available to serve Creevar, now came the problem of delivering them to a temple of Creevar without letting the whole world know they existed. Furthermore Creevar had vetoed Drakoton¡¯s temple as a destination.

    The dungeon¡¯s Voice offered the use of the Sea Sprite and suggested Garonmouth as it was an occasional destination for that vessel. After a short discussion, Sreecator and Zashaan agreed as it solved most of the problems they could foresee.

    On arrival in Garronmouth Zashaan remained with the man-rats whilst Sreecator headed to the local temple to ask the local High Priest¡¯s help in Creevar¡¯s name. High Priestess Vastirana immediately complied when she felt Creevar¡¯s presence. A large luxurious curtained coach and four was sent to the harbour with two elaborately dressed underpriests who had been asking for a transfer. They were sent with the High Priestess¡¯ blessing to Drakoton on the Sea Sprite while among all the confusion of unloading their mostly empty luggage the man-rats were smuggled abroad for the return trip to the temple.

    Sreecator and Zashaan their mission done gratefully returned to base via the temple¡¯s gates.

    * * *

    Meanwhile back in Drakoton a meeting was taking place in the mansion of Vinculus the Red, a much thinner and haggard looking Vinculus the Red. He was clearly not the leader of the group of seven cloaked and hooded beings sat around the table.

    Currently the tubby looking male sat at the head of the table was in full flow, ¡°... clearly we made a mistake in asking our good friend to assault the new dungeon but now we need to capture or kill it, please come up with plans on how to do this. We will discuss them in our next meeting in a week¡¯s time ...¡± and he continued to drone on completely unaware of the small humanoid forms watching and listening in the rat runs behind the walls.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    The Fast Killers tribe slowly made its way south; they were joined by their allies the Bloody Spears. The combined tribes scouts probed ever southward, finding small pools and springs of water but never enough to settle.

    Grraafgor was, once again the lucky scout. Now after two weeks of moving ever south the wind was fetching the news of an ample water supply to his sensitive nostrils. He barked for attention and Rrrofaar joined him on the barren ridge sniffing at the southern wind.

    ¡°Water, lots,¡± confirmed Rrrofaar. ¡°Still far away, not able to get there and return on what water we have.¡±

    ¡°Return, tell our tribes then set up supply and go look,¡± suggested Grraafgor.

    Both scouts hurried back north with their information.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Dr Jones returned to his cubicle in the open plan office and started going through the mass of information he had available. The first thing to do he decided was to get in touch with his opposite number in Japan. It would be useful to have more information on the two victims that had manifested change while flying back to Tokyo from Hawaii. The quarantining of all the passengers and crew on arrival would not have gone unobserved.

    A few phone calls later helped he was sure by the exercising of his halting Japanese he had Dr Iso Namura on the phone, a very excitable Iso Namura who kept on about two sisters that had turned into twin tailed Kitsunes. At least he managed to establish a proper protocol for future contacts.

    He then booked a meeting room and gathered his staff. Those present were naturally sceptical of the data they had to work with but all agreed that there was a clear problem so they assigned duties and initiated all the standard protocols to investigate, contain and hopefully find a cure for the victims.

    Then it was time and Dr Jones ¨C somewhat worried ¨C left for the airport in order to meet his wife and son.

    As they drove home his worst fears were confirmed, well not his worst, Darren was unchanged but he was seeing blue screens. Darren was one of the affected and he was hallucinating.

    * * *

    It had been fun seeing papa and his new family, Jenny and Susie were alright she guessed, luckily mama would be the one taking them round the shops. How could anyone like shopping so much that they didn¡¯t just home in on what they wanted buy and move on to more interesting thing. Lucky papa wanted a fish barbecue. Mary swung her jeep into her now habitual parking spot grabbed her things and headed for the beach.

    She grinned ruefully, ¡®yeah like standin¡¯ for hours on the beach with rod in hand, well I¡¯ll weird them with fishin¡¯ an¡¯ they can leave me baffled with whatever they like.¡¯

    Later when she swung her jeep onto the driveway at home her headlights illuminated a dark SUV parked outside her house. She thought nothing of it as she hopped out of her jeep and hauled her substantial catch out of the back, ¡®wonder how they¡¯ll like barbecued shark? Got to get this lot in the cooler.¡¯

    In the SUV agents Mandy Tremillio and Roy Muller stirred.

    Mary had just stored her catch in the fish cooler when someone rang the front door bell. Remembering the SUV she fished out her phone even as she yelled ¡°Coming!¡± and called Flip.

    ¡°Hey Flip, got visitors an¡¯ a SUV, guess the feds are here.¡±

    ¡°Careful sis, call me after ¡®K.¡±

    ¡°Will do.¡± Mary closed her phone and pocked it before opening the door.

 Chapter 29

    Paris Wolfman was once again conferring with his friend Victoria in their hidden war room.

    ¡°So the Bloody daggers are trying to cobble up an alliance with the Dire Wolves,¡± asked Paris.

    ¡°Correct, do you want us to assassinate one of the leaders again, it might not work this time as there are too many others who would love to see either of those monsters bite the dust.¡±

    ¡°Hmm... no, didn¡¯t you tell me about an assassin that likes to play both sides? Is he still around?¡±

    ¡°Yes and he is still flourishing, this chaos is tailor made for him,¡± answered Victoria.

    ¡°Please feel free to elaborate, but forge a note in the hand of one of the Bloody Knives leaders asking for the assassination of whoever is deemed the most dangerous member of the Dire Wolves, include an up front goodwill gift and get it delivered to that overambitious idiot. Then if you think it necessary get an anonymous warning to the putative victim. Can you work with that?¡±

    ¡°Why Paris what a lovely idea, yes I think something along those lines might just work,¡± purred Victoria.

    * * *

    In Drakoton meanwhile the man-rats were also busy, Steve their leader was making plans, he had dispatched a messenger to Mary with all the recent news and asking her if she could provide some competent burrowers and builders. He was also thanking his stars that he now had access to two catamarans and many more of his folk.

    All the hooded conspirators present at the meeting with Vinculus had been identified and their properties were being carefully ransacked for useful documentation. Lastly he assigned a number of newcomers under a couple of the more experienced of his folk to undertake ¡®background checks¡¯ whatever those were on the local ship chandlers. Mary wanted a list of the local chandlers with a note of their foibles, health and honesty.

    * * *

    ¡®Diggers an¡¯ builders, so Badgers, Moles, Rabbits or maybe beavers. Lessee the list of beastfolk available, yeah typical got rabbits but no badgers or moles. And no, rabbit beastfolk couldn¡¯t dig a simple hole never mind construct a warren. Hey good test for my new agent.¡¯

    After checking to make sure that she wouldn¡¯t be interrupting anything Mary contacted her Admiral of the Ocean Blue.

    ? Tomcat, I¡¯ve got a job for you. ?

    ¡°Yes Mother, what can I do for you today,¡± Tomcat purred back.

    ? Get yourself to Drakoton and confer with Steve, if he wants a digging crew then I want a healthy pair of Badgers so get him to get the quest placed in the local Guild. Then recruit the most suitable of the local chandlers as the agent for our White Dolphin Shipping company. Steve¡¯ll have a list to help you choose. Better get the Badgers delivered to our new agent, that¡¯ll do as a test as to their suitability. ?

    ¡°Yes Mother, it shall be as you desire.¡±

    ? And cut it out with the Mother bit, m¡¯name¡¯s Mary. ?

    ¡°But Mother, it¡¯s your official title Mother of Monsters conferred by the System itself,¡± laughed Tomcat.

    * * *

    Mary then checked out her new soft border and was satisfied at the way it was performing, the larger parties from New Town had yet to make it to her new outer perimeter, and her young monsters were gaining valuable experience.

    Then she checked on Pete and Shirley, if she could she would have grinned at the harassed couple as they tried to control their cute offspring, there were only twenty-eight of them but even with magic their parents were being swept off their tentacles.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    * * *

    Trisha meanwhile was puzzling over the latest message she had just received from Marigold the head of the Dungeon Companions'' League. Why had Marigold just sent her such effusive congratulations and why was she being asked to attend the next annual get together of the league as guest of honour.

    ¡°Um... Mary do you know why Marigold is so excited.¡±

    ? Who¡¯s Marigold? Why should we care if she¡¯s excited? ? replied her dungeon.

    ¡°Marigold, you know the head of the Dungeon Companions'' League.¡±

    ? Oh. If you really want to know why not ask Ocidon or Bluey? ?

    ¡°Can we, ask Bluey that is?¡± asked Trisha anxiously.

    ? Hey Bluey, what¡¯s happenin¡¯ an¡¯ why¡¯s it got that Marigold so excited? ?

    ? You are now ranked as a Godlike Dungeon by the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. ?

    ? ¡®K, hey Trish what does that mean for us anyway? ?

    ¡°Um... Err... I have to... Let me check I¡¯ll tell you when I¡¯m sure myself.¡± Answered Trisha.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    After setting up a hidden water dump Grraafgor and Rrrofaar followed their noses south. They were ecstatic at what they found, a large cave with a deep pool of clear water spilling out to form a vigorous if ultimately short lived stream flowing out into the rocky desert.

    The only sticking point was the fact that according to their noses these caves had been inhabited recently, and the lingering mana traces they could just sense suggested that this had been a dungeon.

    ¡°Good water, lots,¡± said Grraafagor.

    ¡°Yes but Boss and Shaman have to know,¡± confirmed and clarified Rrrofaar.

    They very carefully explored the complex of caves and made doubly sure no dungeon was present and they even tried excavating the collapsed tunnel that they suspected the remaining inhabitants had used to leave. The scent of humans and dwarf lingered faintly.

    ¡°Adventurers kill dungeon,¡± speculated Graafagor.

    ¡°Yes, go tell tribes,¡± agreed Rrrofaar.

    The leaders temporal and spiritual of the two tribes were dubious but decided to take their folk to the new caves. They could always leave if something came up but more water than either tribe could remember having plus good hunting due to the stream was an irresistible attraction.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Agents Tremillio and Muller watched as the woman parked the antique jeep on the drive then removed a large bag from its rear and walked down the side of the house headed for the rear. Shortly after they saw the faint glow of a light at the rear of the property so they got out of their vehicle and headed for the front door. It had been a long day and this was their last interview for the day.

    They rang the front door bell and waited, they vaguely heard what was probably someone yelling ¡°Coming!¡± then lights started coming on in the house as someone approached the front door.

    Mary looked down at the two agents, ¡°Yes, who are you and what do you want?¡±

    Tremillio and Muller showed their ID, ¡°Ms Silvestre?¡±

    Mary glanced at the badges, ¡°FBI, ¡¯K then, you wanna come in, cup of coffee maybe?¡± and led the way to the lounge waving at a pair of large somewhat shabby if comfortable armchairs.

    The two agents followed Mary into the house and sat gingerly in the indicated chairs. ¡°So coffee?¡± inquired their host.

    ¡°No need, we won¡¯t take up much of your time,¡± stated Muller.

    ¡°We just have a few questions, Ms Silvestre did you attend HawaiiCon this year?¡± asked Tremillio.

    Mary narrowed her eyes in suspicion, ¡°you gotta know I did, why the question?¡±

    ¡°Sorry but we have to ask, have you been seeing blue screens since then?¡±

    ¡°Yesss.¡± ¡®an¡¯ for several months before.¡¯ She added in her thoughts. ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°There have been incidents, we are trying to find out how wide is the problem,¡± explained Muller.

    ¡°So?¡±

    ¡°Look Ms Silvestre, we need to know how someone managed to do this and we need to talk with everyone that has been affected, so if you could please tell us your thoughts,¡± added Tremillio.

    Mary leaned back in her couch and used her system given evaluate skill on them, Amanda Rose Tremillio Class N/A Level N/A Strength 12 Intelligence 17 and Roy Henry Muller Class N/A Level N/A Strength 16 Intelligence 13. So.

    ¡°This is pure speculation understand, got virtually no hard facts, but, if any individual or group was able to create this thing then they have a more profound understandin¡¯ of the human brain than... well than anyone would be able to credit. I¡¯ve got blue screens on twenty-four hour delay and have gained skills an¡¯ abilities...¡±

    ¡°So you believe the blue screens are more than hallucinations? What skills and abilities.¡± Asked Tremillio.

    ¡®Oops, said too much... ¡®K then...¡¯

    ¡°Can ¡®evaluate¡¯ people an¡¯ things,¡± stated Mary.

    ¡°You¡¯re not the only one to claim that, care to demonstrate?¡± suggested Muller.

    ¡°¡¯K on your heads be it, Amanda Rose Tremillio Class N/A Level N/A Strength 12 Intelligence 17 and Roy Henry Muller Class N/A Level N/A Strength 16 Intelligence 13.¡±

    Roy was shaken, there was no way this girl could know their full names, the rest could be dismissed as a bluff but...

    The sound of a key in the front door announced that someone else was arriving.

    ¡°Evening Mary, how was your day.¡±

    ¡°Hiya mama, got visitors in the lounge, official visitors from the FBI.¡±

    A quarter of an hour later the two FBI agents left and headed for home having been invited to the next day¡¯s barbecue by the former Mrs Silvestre.

    ¡°She¡¯s hiding something.¡± Tremillio to Muller.

 Chapter 30

    The Alessandrina¡¯s Glory arrived in Drakoton and docked beside the Wave Skimmer. After conferring with the Wave Skimmer¡¯s captain Tomcat next went, utilising suitable precautions to avoid being followed, to the small house that served as a rendezvous with the man-rats.

    ¡°Hi Steve, nice to see you again. Do you know who Vinculus met first when he got here, don¡¯t take any undue risks but maybe the ¡®invisible assassin¡¯ could strike again.¡±

    Steve grinned, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that raise their paranoia? I kinda like the idea, we should be able to do that.¡±

    Tomcat grinned at Steve, ¡°Oh, and I¡¯ve come to pick up the list of chandlers you compiled, you¡¯ll be the one most affected in the end, just what are your thoughts as to their suitability as our agents.¡±

    Steve handed over the list of chandlers and was happy to discuss the merits of each with Tomcat. They quickly came to an agreement as to the more suitable candidates as Tomcat was willing to defer to Steve as the local expert and as the one who would be most directly impacted by their choice.

    Tomcat discarded the first name on the list after entering his shop, the goods were shoddy, he was not going to have anything of that quality on any of his ships. The second was much more promising, the shop itself was small and the range of goods on display somewhat limited but of good quality although a bit pricey. The third name on the list also looked good. Tomcat approached the second option on his list first.

    Tomcat entered Serrenica¡¯s Chandlery for the second time that day. He went up to the serving counter and asked to see Serrenica.

    ¡°May I ask why and who wants to see her,¡± asked the young man behind the counter.

    ¡°I¡¯m Thomas Felix and I¡¯m here as the representative of the White Dolphin shipping company.¡±

    The young man blinked at him, ¡°Please wait for a moment I¡¯ll go and tell Serrenica you¡¯re here.¡± He then turned and left the shop through the door in the back and Tomcat clearly heard, ¡°Mom there¡¯s a guy in the shop that says...¡±

    Tomcat was soon in the shop¡¯s cluttered back office talking with Serrenica. Serrenica for her part was delighted with the possibility of becoming the local agent for a fast growing shipping company. One of her other children was sent hurrying to fetch their uncle, a local lawyer, papers and contracts were perused and signed and everyone retired to the local tavern for a celebrationary drink.

    When Tomcat explained that a collector he knew wanted a breeding pair of Badgers and was willing to pay three nobles for the privilege of owning the northern beasts Serrenica offered to arrange it and promised to have them ready for delivery within the month. Tomcat accepted.

    Then Tomcat gave Serrenica a tour of the two ships that were currently in port, ¡°as you see, they¡¯re optimised for passengers and high value cargo that needs a fast delivery such as perishables for example fruit.¡±

    * * *

    Steve for his part was relieved he didn¡¯t have to supply the badgers and he waited until Mary¡¯s ships had been gone for a month before having Baron Alkadees killed in broad daylight just as he was leaving his mansion, the bushes in his artfully overgrown garden providing ample cover for his sniper.

    Two days later Baron Ferr Galdon¡¯s chief guard claimed the long standing bounty on the head of Vinculus the Red on behalf of his master.

    As Baron Ferr Galdon hadn¡¯t been on his list Steve soon had his spies seeking out everything they could about the good baron and his chief guard.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    The new settlement had quickly grown into a large village and only it¡¯s restricted water supply was preventing it from further expansion. The herbs and assortment of useful mana infused plants were keeping two alchemists happy and money flowing in. Several of the admittedly modified creatures to be found in the dungeon were quite edible so the newly arrived entrepreneurs were mostly pleased with their situation.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    The problem here on the fringes of the great central desert was as always water. The as yet unnamed settlement only water supply flowed from the dungeon and thus was controlled by the dungeon made everyone nervous.

    As always someone turned up with big ambitions, in this case it was a wiry desert dweller going by the name of Halsin the Wanderer. Halsin was tired of wandering the desert and his latest stint as a bandit had not ended well, he had only survived by luck and a fast camel. Now over a hundred kilometres from the scene of his latest debacle he felt safe enough to look around for another scheme to grant him the life of ease he felt he deserved.

    A young and not particularly strong dungeon, nervous villagers, a threatened water supply and there was no guild presence. Yes, Halsin was sure he could do something with that.

    It didn¡¯t take Halsin long to know and befriend all the locals and even some of the regular adventurers that regularly passed through the settlement. He was soon able to convince some of the more self only important local luminaries to form a council which only naturally included him to regulate their new home. Then came a building, admittedly ramshackle to enclose the dungeon entrance to facilitate the rationing of the water supply and incidentally allowing them to levy a small ¡®maintenance¡¯ tax on anyone wanting to enter the dungeon.

    Sandrinna was getting worried about the developments around her principal entrance. She was unhappy at finding herself located in a town. Well a large village but she just didn¡¯t trust humans. Darkmoon tried to reassure her but she just wasn¡¯t buying it. Then the villagers built a gatehouse completely enclosing her entrance. So once they finished it and left for the night she claimed it.

    She consulted with Erekos? and used her nocturnal flyers to figure out who in the village was important and where they lived. Soon she had a small network of crawl ways under the settlement with strategically placed listening holes and several severely bored kobolds.

    As a result of her endeavours she was one of the first to learn of Halsin¡¯s master plan. Seize the dungeon, kill all the monsters, enslave the core and force it to grow its treasures for the settlement, increase the supply of water to the town allowing the council to cut out the adventurers and reap all the benefits for themselves.

    Sandrinna decided to start preparations for her defence and if necessary departure but only if that grasping slaver managed to convince the villagers to attack her.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    ANS 31 had sealed his entrance and was now busy forming the sixth floor of his dungeon, his wisp companion Dawnstar had said it was time to expand. ANS 31 carefully followed the plan Dawnstar said would best please Azurea.

    Then Chaos! Something broke, his soul, his very existence was draining down a link he had not previously noticed. It hurt! He was just starting to panic when it stopped, then it started again but in reverse. ANS 31 blacked out for a few seconds.

    At the same time back on Earth at HawaiiCon Dave Fitzwilliam and his wife were checking out the Young Creators¡¯ Share-a-thon. Dave noticed the two women that entered shortly after he and his wife, the contrast between the two was what drew his eye. He met the tall girl¡¯s eyes and his head seemed to explode. Dave staggered and managed to reach one of the chairs that were lining the walls before collapsing. Maddy clung to him obviously worried.

    Dave could feel the human Dave wake at the other end of their shared link, he could feel his confusion so he initiated contact and found his other self all too aware of what had happened to them. They went through their memories together and sorted them out. Dave clutched Maddy¡¯s hand tightly as he came to terms with what had happened to him, the two of him!

    Dave recovered slowly then asked Maddy if she minded returning to their room for a bit. Once there he explained everything to the love of his life, finally he offered to bring her into a link with him and his other self. It took them a few hours to work everything out with the occasional clarification from the System. So they decided to see if they could discover who the girl was and to see if they could contact her to see if she had noticed anything.

    By the end of the con they had identified the girl, many people were talking about her as she seemed to attract dolphins on the snorkel tours. She was a local, Mary Silvestre by name. Or as they found out later after they had booked into a cheaper hotel for the rest of their stay a local of one of the other islands so they¡¯d have to book an inter island flight if they wanted to talk to her face to face.

    * * *

    Fish marinating or otherwise prepared, school done for the day, quick visit to the library and then home to prepare for the barbecue.

    Mary prepared the grills and hauled out the fish getting ready to start, if anyone wanted drinks or anything to go with the fish they all knew from prior experience that they would have to get it themselves or go without.

    Then the house phone rang, so after a quick check she went to answer it...

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Hello, could we please speak with Mary Silvestre.¡±

    ¡°Speaking.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Dave Fitzwilliam and I attended the recent HawaiiCon, could we, that is me and my wife come round to visit you sometime soon.¡±

    Mary paused, suspicious, ¡°Yeah? Guess you know where to come if you got our phone number. So wanna come ¡®round ¡®fore the Barbie?¡±

    ¡°We can be there in half an hour, our hotel¡¯s not far.¡±

    ¡°¡¯K then, just come ¡®round the back.¡±

 Chapter 31

    That night Serenica celebrated with her family. Early the next day she dug up a nice bottle of Eversky Plum Brandy and penned a suitably flowery letter to that well known eccentric Viscount Travanne mentioning how her patron was seeking to set up a lifelike display to show some animals in their natural habitats. She then further explained that her patron has heard of the Viscount¡¯s famed zoological gardens and wondered if he could find it in his heart to part with a breeding pair of badgers for a suitable compensation.

    A week went by with an exchange of letters and after suitable directed flattery Serenica was two nobles poorer and playing host to not only two badgers but also six meerkats and two ferrets.

    ¡°Um mother what are we going to do with the other vermin? Our client only asked for the badgers and we can¡¯t just dispose of them, the Viscount might be daft but he would find out.¡±

    ¡°Just pass the lot onto Tomcat along with his nibs letter and an explanation. We¡¯re one noble up in return for a couple of letters and a bottle of overpriced brandy so I¡¯m happy.¡±

    Two days later the whole menagerie was on its way on the Sea Sprite.

    * * *

    Steve for his part was finding himself shorthanded, he and his people were buried in information. He was however perplexed most of it didn¡¯t make sense. The man-rats went over their sources again, they listened in on a few more secret meetings and despite the utter illogic of the arrogant idiots'' plans they set out their conclusions and outlined their sources and sent a report to their mistress and revered creator.

    The report accompanied the menagerie on the Sea Sprite.

    * * *

    Mary was just as perplexed by the pirate¡¯s backers plans if not more so, it seemed that if at first you don¡¯t succeed then try again using the same plan but with more numbers. Didn¡¯t those idiots figure that she would have expanded her defences in the meantime?

    So, orders to Steve to keep an eye on the arrogant idiots and to check that they wouldn¡¯t just decide to impress shipping for their plans. Secondly to prepare to appropriate their liquid assets at an appropriate time, it had worked with Vinculus it should be even better this time when all the irate ship owners came seeking compensation for their lost vessels.

    Next, inform Victoria and Paris of the new assets coming online, she was certain they could find a use for a race of underground burrowers and builders. Also Mary forwarded them Steve¡¯s plans for a hidden docking cavern for the catamarans and asked for suggestions on how to improve it.

    Then and only then Mary looked over her cargo and had it transferred to one of her laboratory caverns, she could understand why Serenica had sent the creatures under the circumstances but why did that daft nobleman send her meerkats of all things, bizarre looking desert dwellers but ¨C they were burrowers too.

    So Mary amended her letters to her lieutenants to mention two races of burrowers and builders and the potential strengths and weaknesses of both.

    ¡®So... let¡¯s see what I can come up with this time...¡¯

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Sandrinna and Darkmoon soon were convinced that Halsin was going to get his way; he was making headway in the settlement and was skilful at using his control of her water that she was generously sharing with the villagers to prepare an attack on her.

    Sandrinna went ahead with opening a new tunnel from her third level to the rather barren hidden valley her flying scouts had located. Maybe she could still salvage her dungeon she really didn¡¯t feel like starting over again.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Halsin was satisfied, he had managed to contact and persuade a couple of his bandit friends to throw their lot in with him and he had persuaded a band of adventurers to help. A second band of adventurers had balked citing guild policy but he and his minions had been able to kill three and chase the remaining two into the dungeon and one of those was bleeding badly so he still had some time to concoct a story explaining their disappearance.

    Sandrinna decided to contact the two fugitives and ordered her monsters not to attack then she instructed Erekos?.

    Guzz limped into the dungeon behind his friend Fallan. His leg was badly slashed and as soon as he determined they were not being followed he applied a bandage to his wound.

    Fallan looked grim, the damn locals had killed his cousin and he was determined to avenge him. ¡°How bad is it Guzz? Do you need a healing potion?¡±

    ¡°Save it for yourself, you have to get out of here somehow and advise the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and avenge our friends.¡± Then Guzz noticed just how strange things were in this cavern. Three jackals were moving along the walls headed for one of the entrances while another watched from the entrance. By rights the things should have attacked them hoping to capitalize on his injury.

    Then things got stranger, a large ¨C for a kobold ¨C winged kobold wearing iron reinforced leather armor appeared at the entrance and displayed his empty hands. ¡°Greetings. My lady would like to parlay with you as she believes you and she have grounds for an alliance against the villagers.¡±

    Fallon and Guzz looked at each other and nodded.

    ¡°How can we help one another?¡± asked Fallon.

    ¡°My lady is planning to withdraw from this level and trapping the access to the second level before diverting the supply of water she has generously allowed the residents of the settlement without. She is in the process of opening another entrance to her domain and she would be willing to escort you to it on the stipulation that you would alert your Guild to what is happening.¡± Explained Erekos?.

    ¡°Can you heal my leg?¡± asked Guzz.

    Erekos? seemed to listen for a minute then answered, ¡°My lady is sorry but no, the only time she had access to powerful healing potions she was so intent on escaping that she was unable to learn how to create them. However she is willing to offer you hospitality on the understanding that our mutual foes might render that offer moot.¡±

    Guzz grimaced in resignation, still things were infinitely better now than five minutes ago. ¡°Fallon take my water bags and rations and head for the guild.¡±

    ¡°My lady can supply water and rations, even a small storage device if needed,¡± added Erekos?.

    Fallon thought about it for a moment, he couldn¡¯t see any way Guzz could get back to Arsouk with that leg. ¡°Right I¡¯ll do it and I¡¯ll expect you to be still alive when I get back Guzz my friend. More water and travel rations would be welcome thanks.¡±

    Erekos? passed Fallon a rough sketch map of the hidden valley the new passage was fast approaching and explained that he should use the second of the exits from it as the nearest exit gave out on a valley that contained a Jackalwere.

    Soon Guzz was settled in a small cave containing a pile of furs and a rickety chair and resupplied Fallon was on his way to Arsouk.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Dave and Maddy paid their taxi and somewhat hesitantly walked up to the house past the elderly jeep on the driveway. As instructed they headed down the path leading around the house to the rear.

    When Dave set eyes on the tall girl filling the two large grills with charcoal he felt the hairs on the back of his neck bristle with apprehension. Maddy smiled not noticing her husband¡¯s sudden caution, ¡°Hi I¡¯m Maddy and this is my husband Dave. You must be Mary.¡±

    Mary narrowed her eyes appraising them, first elves she had met and obviously with an appearance tailored to not stand out too greatly among humans. Dave however...

    ¡°Yeah that¡¯s me, I kinda see why you wanted to speak with me but how did you spot me in the first place?¡±

    Dave tried out his new evaluate skill earning an irritated look from his hostess and noted that some people were able to sense the use of evaluate. Not that he gained much by it ¨C ¡®Race: Human ¨C Class: ??? ¨C Level: ?¡¯

    ¡°Well it all started when Dave saw you at the Con, Dave collapsed and joined with his alternate self on Parthia. Um is this making any sense to you?¡± asked Maddy.

    Mary stared at them for a moment, ¡®Hey Bluey, what gives, somehow their story seems to make sense?¡¯

    ? Your soul was divided by one of the gods of Parthia, you now exist on two worlds bound together by a soul link. ?

    ¡°So that¡¯s what that link is!¡± Mary exclaimed. ¡°But why...¡± she fingered her pearl.

    ? Your soul is being rebuilt in the image of a dungeon¡¯s soul, a dungeon requires a core. ?

    Mary could almost swear Bluey was enjoying a rare old joke at her expense.

    So after taking a few moments to recover she and the Fitzwilliams shared experiences and she was able to teach them how to interact and live with the system. They decided to stay for the barbecue despite the risk of meeting the FBI agents that had been invited.

 Chapter 32

    Captain Haz¡¯afsad was working in his office when someone politely cleared his throat, Captain Haz¡¯afsad looked up from his paper covered desk and saw a small humanoid ¨C about forty centimetres tall ¨C standing by the wall looking at him.

    ¡°Our God lord Ocidon the Earthshaker asked our leader to share some intelligence with you so Steve sent me to report to you with copies of everything we have. I am to answer any questions you have that we have any information or opinions on.¡±

    Captain Haz¡¯afsad just stared bemused. ¡°If Lord Ocidon asked then it must be important, um, can I get you something and what should I call you?¡±

    ¡°I have selected the name Daniel for myself. I wouldn¡¯t mind some of those grapes,¡± answered Daniel an he scrambled onto the chair in front of Haz¡¯afsad¡¯s desk. He reached up and tossed a small pendant onto the desk. ¡°The documents are in that holding device, the release word is ¡®suppositions¡¯.¡±

    Haz¡¯afsad picked up the pendant and opened it, then he stacked the contents on his desk. ¡°I see that this almost entirely consists of copies and reports.¡±

    ¡°Mary doesn¡¯t require proof of our probity so why alert our targets,¡± said Daniel whilst snacking on a grape.

    The meeting lasted over an hour and left Captain Haz¡¯afsad edgy. He asked for an urgent meeting with his High Priest. Si¡¯Tran the High Priest of the temple of Ocidon in Drakoton wasn¡¯t happy especially after a prayer had left him with the impression that this bombshell was on the level.

    ¡°Haz¡¯afsad send a few of your men to pick up our two potential traitors, I think we need a word or two with them in front of a truthsayer. We need to clean house.¡±

    ¡°Yes sir, what about Daniel and that interfering dungeon?¡± asked Haz¡¯afsad.

    ¡°Gift horses Haz¡¯afsad, gift horses. Establish a regular method of contact and I can¡¯t bring myself to object when the dungeon was so obviously right to establish a network of spies in our fair city.¡±

    * * *

    Mary was getting frustrated, all this political shenanigans were keeping her from playing in her lagoon and the seas around, visiting with Pete and Shirley, teasing Trish and Alessandrina and more seriously, delaying some far more interesting projects like uplifting and improving those giant squid that had ventured into the depths of her domain.

    Anyway she had her badger beastfolk, squat and very strong they would probably be the match of any dwarf. The meerkats she had gone the route of her man-rats and now had ¨C beep she really wasn¡¯t good at naming things, well dual natured meerkats. She dispatched the first batch to Steve.

    ? Hey Trish, you think I should send a small colony to that Viscount chap in thanks. ?

    ¡°What! No! don¡¯t you dare Mary.¡±

    ? But Trish, you said they were cute and the beep things hate the damp so why not give the Viscount some? ?

    ¡°Don¡¯t you want to keep them secret?¡± asked Trisha. ¡°And just what are you plotting now.¡±

    ? No point keepin¡¯ ¡®em secret now Ocidon asked me to share ¡®em with his temple on Drakoton, maybe the Viscount could throw some sand in peoples eyes. I¡¯m workin¡¯ out how to send an ¨C expeditionary force ¨C to take out that fleet in mid ocean if those idiots are bein¡¯ cunnin¡¯ an¡¯ really plannin¡¯ to invade Port Salvage. It¡¯s what I¡¯d do after all. ?

    ¡°But you have all their plans.¡±

    ? Yeah an¡¯ I think they are stupid enough to follow them but I am not plannin¡¯ on believin¡¯ ¡®em until it¡¯s all done an¡¯ dusted. ?

    ¡°So how do you intend to do this, I don¡¯t have to tell you that acting outside your domain is dangerous again do I?¡± asked an exasperated Trisha.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ? Well the flying fish will keep me informed, I figure the big squid are far enough along to act as transport for a fair number of lampreys an¡¯ ¡®letric ¡®cuda, add in a flight of sea wyverns an¡¯ things should get interestin¡¯. As for danger, yeah I¡¯d rather not have to do this kinda thing yet. ?

    * * *

    Viscount Travanne was absolutly charmed by his guests, he had always had a soft spot for meerkats and now he was playing host to eighteen charming articulate meerkats that could change into elegant little people, a little hairy addmitedly but truly charming.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Sandrinna had her core moved to the cavern by her mid-cliff escape tunnel.

    She then withdrew all the creatures she had on her first level and then reshaped the stairs between the first and second level. She turned them into a low slippery spiralling tube. At the bottom she erected a series of fortifications for her lizardmen and kobolds to use. She consulted with Darkmoon and obtained Guzz¡¯s input through Erekos?. This consultation resulted in several new protected positions for her few archers and slingers.

    Next she withdrew any of her creatures incapable of climbing or flying to her third level and replaced the stairs with a pit, she left rope-ladders for her defenders to retreat but trapped the holding points to collapse a set time after being triggered. She recreated the fortifications on the third level.

    Finally after night fell a full day after Fallon had left to report to the guild she diverted her water supply to flow down a channel in her new entrance tunnel and flow down to the barren hidden valley.

    Halsin was woken at dawn by the sounds of consternation and rage, he pulled on his jacket and leaving his latest conquest behind went to see what all the fuss was about.

    He was soon told vociferously and bitterly. The water supply for the settlement had dried up. They had no water. Halsin was enraged, the damn dungeon was plotting against him, thwarting his destiny. Well they had no choice, thanks to the rationing nobody had any spare water, they had to take the dungeon and get it to supply them with water or they might die of thirst.

    A band of the more adventurous citizens with one of his bandit friends ventured into the formerly lush first level and returned to report that it was barren and empty and that a treacherous twisty spiralling tunnel had replaced the stairs. They recommended ropes.

    Arjavh led his three young spies back from their listening posts under the settlement and flooded though the first level activating and arming the traps as they went after the scouting party had left. Their eyes gleamed with anticipation as they spotted a villager gazing down the access to the second level, a quick rush and they left his body bleeding where he had stood as they withdrew.

    Halsin managed to persuade or bully everyone to comply with his plans, they determined to use the three youths deemed too young or weak to fight as runners, leaving one in the settlement to watch out for any adventurers that could be used as reinforcements and took the other two along with the mob of mostly ill armed desperate people.

    They poured into the dungeon and only learned caution when two of their number stumbled into the newly activated traps. Result one dead, two healing potions consumed and one unhappy alchemist who was seeing his stock disappear.

    The ramp claimed another villager and deposited another handful unceremoniously in front of the new fortifications which resulted in a few more casualties. However magic, potions and a spearhead of adventurers and heavily armed former bandits forced the defences forcing the defenders to withdraw, they lost a couple of kobolds and almost a dozen overeager lizardmen.

    Halsin wasn¡¯t particularly worried, none of his fighters had been killed though they had lost another seven villagers. And numerous healing potions, but only their bitter alchemist noted that and realised they would soon run out. Srood handed the bag containing the remaining healing potions to Halsin and telling him he was going back for more grabbed his niece who was acting as a runner, her now bloody dress showing that the task of runner was no sinecure and headed out of the dungeon.

    Halsin forged on, the second level was also empty of everything except traps. The sheer sided pit leading to the next level was an unpleasant surprise.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    As they pulled into the office after another day of chasing down possibly infected citizens agent Tremillo suggested, ¡°Roy why don¡¯t you go to that barbecue party we were invited to, take your girlfriend she likes fish.¡±

    ¡°Might be a good idea but what about you Mandy, you were invited too.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m a vegan Roy, I somehow don¡¯t think I would enjoy it.¡±

    They filed their reports and while Tremillio headed home Roy stopped by his girlfriend Sandra¡¯s desk and somewhat hesitantly asked her if she¡¯d be interested in accompanying him.

    ¡°Why are you so hesitant Roy, what aren¡¯t you telling me?¡± asked Sandra suspiciously.

    ¡°The girl throwing the barbacue is one of our subjects and she is having the blue box halucinations. But invitation was genuine and the fish was caught late yesterday.¡±

    Sandra licked her lips involuntarily, ¡°right then when are we leaving.¡±

    ¡°Whenever you¡¯re ready.¡±

    When they arrived there were several cars parked in the road outside the house and the barbecue was obviously in full swing in the backyard.

 Chapter 33

    It was Trisha who noticed the message on the Dungeon Exchange channel, she had learnt from bitter experience that Mary routinely ignored all System messages so she usually dealt with them, actually she was more than happy to deal with them as they usually meant the two of them were getting stronger.

    This was a weird one however so she badgered her partner until she consented to look at it.

    Mary sighed and released her avatar, she never seemed to have time to play recently, she examined the message Trish was so insistent she read.

    ¡°Dear Ms Silvestre, recently my alter ego or double on Earth met yours and that opened or more accurately blasted open our soul link and now we both remember everything we both know and did since that bitch Azurea separated our soul and set me up here on Parthia without my memories as a dungeon. Would you be willing to communicate with me / us. Yours Andy (David Andrew Fitzwilliam).¡±

    Mary sought more information and the Dungeon exchange option supplied what she needed, there it was almost the last entry on the list of Apprentice ranked dungeons: ¡°Unnamed ¨C David Andrew Fitzwilliam¡±.

    Selecting ¡°Unnamed ¨C David Andrew Fitzwilliam¡± informed her that Unnamed had six levels, had Goblins and Slimes. It also informed her that David Andrew Fitzwilliam was level 6 and his affinities were Fire, Earth and Air.

    ? Hey Trish can we block this beep thing, I really don¡¯t want everyone to know that kind of thing ¡®bout me. ?

    ¡°No need Mary, only the other Godlike dungeons can access information about you and as you¡¯re the same rank the System will contact you and ask for your consent.¡±

    ? Huh! ¡®K. ?

    Mary replied, ¡°Hi Andy, wouldn¡¯t know about the me back on Earth but I¡¯m willing to help any other victim of that blue haired cow. Cheers Mary.¡±

    Andy was obviously anxious as his reply to this missive arrived almost instantly.

    ¡°Dear Mary, any help you can give would be welcome, currently thanks to my former companion who thanks to Azurea was able to use me like a computer I have an uninspiring dungeon with goblins and slimes. Can you trade, well I have nothing to trade bar a future favour or two, something I can use to bolster my defences. Regards Andy.¡±

    ¡°Hi Andy, future favours would be great, most of my stuff requires large quantities of salt water. I do have the odd surface creatures available, wolves, badgers, rats, ferrets, snakes etc. Also have some sapient beings that might suit, badger beastfolk, meerkat shapeshifters. Oh and I have the pattern for a Jackalwere but those things are just plain crazy. Cheers Mary.¡±

    ¡°Dear Mary, I¡¯ll take everything on that list if I can. Forgive me but nothing there seems to merit Godlike rank. Regards Andy.¡±

    ¡°Godlike¡¯s due to my small sea serpents, giant sapient squid, magician octopi, sea wyvern and other assorted ocean fauna. I am an Ocean dungeon. Right the lot are on the ¡®Offering¡¯ channel but they will be withdrawn in half an hour as anyone can pick them up, oh and the sapients had their prices upped by the System. Sorry.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean small! Those things are huge!¡± exclaimed Trisha.

    ? Nope, now J?rmungandr is big, it was so large that it was able to surround the earth and grasp its own tail. That¡¯s over forty thousand kilometres long. Now that¡¯s big! ?

    A stunned Trisha was only able to open and close her mouth in silence as she contemplated that image, ¡°You... you¡¯re not planning...¡±

    ? Nope, wouldn¡¯t be able to feed something like that, besides can¡¯t see what good it would be. ?

    Time passed.

    ? ¡®K that¡¯s half an hour, so lets see what Andy selected, wow he took the lot! And it seems that ¡°Heaven¡¯s Belt ¨C Ralpindi¡± owes me five future favours for the Badger ¡®folk and the Meercat shifters. Then ¡°Folding Deep ¨C Arlene DuChan¡± owes me three for the Badger ¡®folk, and finally ¡°Unnamed ¨C Sandrinna¡± owes me two for the Meercat shifters. It seems that half an hour is too generous. ?

    ¡°That¡¯s because of your rank, anyone who notices will probably grab anything that looks like a bargain especially if the offer is time limited,¡± explained Trisha helpfully.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Erekos? informed Guzz of the current situation, the villagers were blooded but they had taken the second level and were contemplating the entry to the third.

    ¡°My Lady suggests that you might like to take your leave down the tunnel, she will then block it but leave the water flowing. You should be fine until your friend returns.¡±

    Guzz looked at the kobold, he had never imagined that he would sympathise with a dungeon much less a kobold. ¡°I¡¯d rather fight.¡±

    ¡°If that is your wish, where do you think you would do the most good, please understand we are not being tasked with fighting to the last, we still have levels to descend to and defend. We need to bleed them of magic and healing as much as killing them.¡± Explained Erekos?.

    Sandrinna watched the invaders while Darkmoon searched feverishly for something that could help them.

    Sandrinna replaced the stairs to her fourth level with a steep smooth ramp and added several pit traps for good measure. Then she added some basic fortifications at the bottom and some further fortifications two caves back.

    Darkmoon gasped in surprise, ¡°Sandrinna there¡¯s a godlike dungeon offering some unique creatures for future favours. It¡¯s time limited.¡±

    ? Anything that will do well in the desert? If so grab it. ?

    ¡°Done! We owe Blue Lagoon two future favours.¡±

    Sandrinna froze in shock as the information came flooding into her mind. This was no template she could use to summon the creatures, this was a meticulous blueprint for creating unique independent beings not restricted to her domain. She shared her insight with Darkmoon, they both realized that this could potentially enable them to learn how to employ the same techniques in the future, if they managed to survive that is.

    * * *

    Srood hurried out of the dungeon dragging his niece by the hand as he made for his shop. Once there much to his niece¡¯s surprise he starting filling his prized storage device with his stock of cheap weak potions.

    ¡°Uncle why are you placing the cheap potions in storage, I thought you said they were virtually useless.¡±

    Srood stopped and regarded his niece waving the flask containing one of the potions in question slowly back and forth making the liquid swirl. ¡°Think Foritta, think, what do I have here and what do we all lack?¡±

    Foritta opened her mouth to reply then closed it as her eyes widened. ¡°Water!¡±

    ¡°Correct,¡± said Srood and resumed packing the largish flasks in his storage device. Once he had finished he packed what he could in a couple of bags and sent his niece to pack her things. They left his makeshift shop for the last time and headed for the stables.

    ¡°See if you can persuade your friend to accompany us while I saddle Ruffaros¡¯ camels, he won¡¯t need them again after all.¡±

    Fifteen minutes later Srood and Foritta were on their way leaving behind young Harseed who refused to give up his job of lookout.

    * * *

    Halsin watched with contempt as the adventurers used their own pitons to secure their ropes while his men and the villagers secured theirs to the existing stone rope holders that sported the cut remnants of the defenders ropes. Unfortunately the weakened stone gave way dropping the attackers precipitously down the pit to shrieks of fright. The defenders watched with glee and as the impetuous remaining lizardmen ran forward to kill the merely wounded with frustration as the adventurers arrived at the bottom of the hole and slaughtered the distracted lizardmen.

    Guzz used his crossbow to good effect hitting the adventurer¡¯s healer, and the remaining archers and slingers did likewise.

    The death of their healer enraged the adventurers and they charged the fortifications impetuously. One of their number discovered a pit trap in the worst possible way.

    Halsin descended using the adventurer¡¯s ropes as did his remaining bandit. The two remaining villagers fled. What he found at the bottom wasn¡¯t promising.

    ¡°Should we withdraw? Dungeons always let people leave don¡¯t they?¡± Halsin asked Gutripper the leader of the adventurers as he passed him two healing potions for the unfortunate who had discovered the pit trap.

    Zar Gutripper just contemplated him with flat dead eyes, ¡°If we can and no.¡±

    ¡°Hey, give us Halsin and you can all leave unmolested,¡± yelled Guzz.

    Zar Gutripper lived up to his name and quickly stripped Halsin¡¯s body of valuables, in this he was assisted by the remaining bandit. They started back up the ropes.

    Guzz looked round puzzled as the denizens of the dungeon simply watched as the remaining invaders left. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going after them?¡±

    ¡°No, you offered bargain for My Lady, they accepted. My Lady says let them leave then conditions of truce fulfilled,¡± Erekos? told him.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Agent Muller, for he was currently working even while enjoying a plate of grilled fish was wandering around the party on his own. Sandra it would seem by her closed eyes and blissful look was fully concentrating on her fish. He could almost see cat ears and tail adorning her.

    Mary and Philip Silvestre were present, both had been to the con, the two elves were new, their accents suggested potential complications. He would have to find out who they were.

    When he next passed Sandra she was nattering with their hostess discussing of all things, marinades, seasonings and cooking times. It would seem she was a fan of the fish barbecue experience.

    A visit to the facilities allowed him a discrete phone call to get someone to tail the elves and to find out who they were.

    In the car heading home he was bored by Sandra¡¯s enthusiasm for the experience, he had no interest in cooking after all. He was however intrigued when Sandra described the fairy she swore she had seen hanging around. The blurred out of focus film on her mobile did look like a fairy.

 Chapter 34

    Victoria sent a runner to inform Paris Wolfman that Dire Wolves had taken the bait and that a full scale battle was now taking place between them and the Bloody Daggers.

    ¡°Looks like it¡¯s time Major, take the bulk of your men and see what you can do while the savages are having fun,¡± ordered Paris.

    Major Samuel grinned wolfishly and left with a bounce in his step. Paris watched as Sam led his people through the barricades now reinforced with ten badger folk sappers. Those badgers had been worth their weight in gold, better than dwarves anyday.

    The Major took his first target, the Sea Beasts by complete surprise and was able to free their slaves and kill or capture the majority if not all of them, the Harvesters were not taken by surprise but in their hunger weakened state were just as easy to eradicate. And eradicate is what happened when his men saw what was in the kitchens. Needless to say there were no slaves left to save.

    Sam reorganised his people and sent out his scouts. The Backstreet Killers were intent on the fight so he formed up his people, checked they had water and food and moved to take Vinculus¡¯ backstreet butchers in the rear. It was a disgrace, streetwise thugs shouldn¡¯t be this blind so he was cautious keeping alert for an ambush. Sam grinned, Mother had been right to have him concentrate on unit tactics, soldiers might not be as good as warriors individually but when acting as a unit they kept on winning.

    Mother, yes it fit, Tomcat had started it but by now most of her ¡®folk were calling her that!

    Major Samuel had to extend his line and was only left with his sappers as a reserve, but he was confident that his badgers were solid. Damn but it was hard to keep the locals in his little army in check, they had serious grudges against the Killers. The actual fight was easy, but they broke and ran almost immediately.

    Sam reformed his boys and led them in against the exhausted and bloodied Dire Wolves and Bloody Daggers. Discipline finally broke down as the locals in his little force realized just how close they were to eradicating the scourge that had blighted their lives for so long, he had to work hard to reform his ¡®folk to keep the poor fools alive.

    Major Sam reformed his people and marched them back in triumph escorting a pitiful few released slaves. He was really proud of his guys and gals though that wouldn¡¯t stop him and his sergeants from yelling at and making miserable the lives of the ones who broke discipline.

    ¡°Mission accomplished Paris, all that¡¯s left out there are scattered bands of thugs, Captain Derindus¡¯ fives and Katrina¡¯s special forces are the ones best suited to disposing of them. Just be careful when using our locals, their hate for the scum could easily endanger them.¡±

    ¡°So what next Sam?¡±

    ¡°Your call Paris but I¡¯d clear out the remaining scum, they¡¯re mostly the remnants of the Backstreet Butchers and you will probably need Victoria¡¯s help to locate them. However it is now a political problem, you have to get this town up and running while I train my guys to be mounted infantry and recruit some cavalry so we can comply with Mother¡¯s wishes and turn this island into the prosperous place it should be.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± Paris looked into the distance and smiled ruefully, ¡°You know I was not sure we would manage this but Mother was right. Put Captain Katrina in touch with Victoria¡¯s folk and order her out.¡±

    ¡°And Derindus?¡±

    ¡°Guess we have to use him, give him what information you have and set him loose.¡±

    * * *

    Trisha had given up trying to get Mary to attend the annual get together of the Dungeon Companions League, even pointing out that she could select another avatar didn¡¯t help.

    ? What? Hey one of those giant squid folk would be cool, then I could explore the deeps. ?

    Not helpful.

    ? Trish, you go, you¡¯re the one with the invite. Have fun you could always tell ¡®em I¡¯m plannin¡¯ the takeover of Parthia. ?Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Trisha panicked, ¡°You mustn¡¯t tell anyone that!¡±

    ? Um, why, just a joke, it¡¯d be way too much hassle. ?

    ¡°Because they would probably believe you!¡± Trisha almost shouted.

    ? Well you know, I think we could... would take a looong time... Nope too much work an¡¯ no time for play. ?

    So Trisha was guest of honour at the annual get together and met many people and was frankly bored to tears by the other guests apparent tunnel vision and focus on the minutea of their dungeons.

    When she got back she summed up her experience in one sentence.

    ¡°By the gods it was boring, they¡¯re so closed in, now I know why the other Godlike dungeons and many of the elites and their companions weren¡¯t present.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    An exhausted Fallon stumbled into the Adventurer¡¯s Guild Hall in Arsouk asking to see the Guildmaster. Fredar the clerk demanded to know why he needed the Guildmaster. A brief explanation soon had Fallon ensconced in Burritis¡¯ office.

    Once again Fallon explained what Halsin was attempting to do and of his attack on his party when they refused to go along with the plans to sack and enslave the dungeon. Burritis recognised the seriousness of the problem ¨C after all even if it wasn¡¯t much of a dungeon it was the only one he had. He made an urgent report to his superiors and did his best to scrape up a group of his members to go to the rescue of Guzz ¨C his life gem was still glowing ¨C and the dungeon.

    Burritis led out the rescue party at dawn on the next day with a determined Fallon in the lead. Three hours after they left Arsouk they passed what appeared to be an exhausted man and his daughter riding two camels and leading two others.

    Evening was falling when they met the settlement¡¯s survivors and were attacked by the desperate thirsty men. The fight was short and vicious and might have ended differently if Zar Gutripper and his two surviving party members had elected to fight rather than grabbing their camels and fleeing.

    When they arrived at the desolate settlement they were met by a limping Guzz who was full of tales of desperate fights and a heroic defence.

    Sandrinna drafted Guzz as an interim ¡®voice¡¯ briefing him via Erekos?. It was not ideal but she did not trust the recently arrived rescue party sufficiently to risk her oldest and most faithful defender.

    The agreement they reached satisfied Guildmaster Burritis and his adventurers it was less satisfactory to Sandrinna but she felt she could live with it. She supplied a well and agreed to restore her dungeon and the Guild guaranteed to run a small hostel for visiting adventurers and prevent any further mass invasions.

    And so thanks to Guzz¡¯s tall tales Sandrinna¡¯s dungeon became the Last Stand Dungeon.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary wanted desperately to set some kind of spy on the fed, but she was cooking and didn¡¯t want to raise suspicions or worry her friends. Then the fed girl Sandra came up to compliment her and to seek help with her cooking.

    ? update initiated ¨C core activated ¨C integration in process ¨C soul link confirmed ¨C alpha and beta links functional ¨C core integrated ¨C stage two update complete ?

    Mary froze for a moment as masses of information surged back and forth, she instructively shunted it into her new ¨C memory module? Mind extension, amplifier, core whatever.

    She smiled and almost on automatic described in detail her new marinade to a fascinated Sandra. Then she grinned in delight, a quick twist of her suddenly far more accessible and flexible manna coupled with a scrap of newly gained knowledge and a small spark shot into the phone Roy the snoop was using to surreptitiously film her guests. Now she had the fed bugged and, a second spark shot across and joined the first in the Smartphone¡¯s guts. Now her little manna bug could replicate itself and it could spread to his contacts.

    After her guests left she explored her new abilities, she seemed to have gained an idiotic fondness for spying and information gathering.

    ¡®Huh, I already have five feds bugged, that¡¯s kinda fast. Huh huh no way Jos¨¦, now Mr Hutchinson you¡¯ll regret it if you follow through with that...¡¯

    Her pearl on the other hand was just a flaking shell around a big diamond, she fingered it regretfully as the remains of the outer covering crumbled away revealing the innumerable small facets of a huge diamond.

    ¡®Gonna have to see that no one sees you my beauty, but I kinda liked you as a pearl.¡¯

    ? Did you know Roy sees Sandra as a catgirl ¨C she¡¯s being integrated ¨C and your soul requires a diamond as a core and the pearl has been rebuilt at the same time as your soul ¨C beware the pixie ?

    ¡°Beep you Bluey, what you up to now?¡±

    * * *

    Sandra was having a nightmare, she was changing, her ears were moving and changing she could hear her neighbours chatting quietly, her eyes were allowing her to see in the near dark. Her tail lashed in agitation and she seemed to hear Roy saying, ¡°nice kitty, that¡¯s my sexy cat.¡±

    Then she woke and stretched ¨C it felt so good as her tail stood high and she dug her steel claws into the headboard of her bed leaving her mark. She screamed, tail! Claws! Oh God her nightmare ¨C it was real! She had furry legs!

    * * *

    Dr Jones went through the papers on his desk, he wasn¡¯t sure about some of the theories that were hovering in the background of these notes and thesis but the girl was brilliant, and one of those affected by this condition. He walked over to his colleague Dr Sebenschu and waited patiently while the DNA specialist went through the papers. Josh looked stunned when he looked up.

    ¡°Can we recruit him?¡±

    ¡°Her, and no she¡¯s not quite seventeen, and she¡¯s one of the affected.¡±

    ¡°We should contact her.¡±

 Chapter 35 (v2.0)

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C RAFAEL TWICEBORN * * *

    ¡®Oh no not again,¡¯ thought Rafael Twiceborn as he perused his correspondence with Captain Haz¡¯afsad, ¡®why are we always the last to know.¡¯

    Rafael looked down at the report that had accompanied the letter and gathered the sheets together. He stood and headed for his superior¡¯s office. Danilus had to know about this ¨C at once.

    He was lucky, Danilus was not particularly busy and was able to see him immediately. Rafael greeted the high priest and handed him the letter and report. ¡°Sir, I believe you should see this report from Haz¡¯afsad immediately. Mary has been busy again.¡±

    Danilus Oakborn read the letter and scanned the report. Then he looked up quizzically at his captain of the guard. ¡°why are you surprised? Surely you are aware Mary is very unconventional, and you come from her world, or one much like it.¡±

    Rafael just looked at his superior as he struggled to find an answer.

    ¡°I¡¯m more worried that Ocidon thinks it necessary our temple should have this information, and access to these spies of Mary¡¯s,¡± explained Danilus.

    ¡°Yes but...¡± sighed Rafael.

    Danilus smiled kindly at him, ¡°why don¡¯t you go to the temple and meditate, and you can always ask our god for his help.¡±

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C TOMCAT * * *

    Tomcat stretched in the dawn light, enjoying the beauty of the tropical dawn from the deck of his ship. He was glad to be back abroad the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory. Now she¡¯d been modified and re-rigged, she was faster than ever, and could sail really close to the wind.

    One hour later he was coming in to dock at the strangest port he had ever seen in his admittedly short life. There was a rust streaked iron tower poking some three meters above the waves, well braced with steel chains, and surrounded by floating docks. It really didn¡¯t inspire confidence.

    As they got closer they were hailed by one of the dwarves that seemed to be in charge of the strange structure. Once they were tied up at one of the floating docks Tomcat paid the docking fee, declined the offer to use the lift, whatever that might be, and leaving his first mate in charge of his ship he dove over the side after activating his water breathing enchantment.

    Tomcat swam down alongside the dwarves¡¯ docking tower. He was less impressed than ever, the thing looked distinctly unsafe, one good storm and he couldn¡¯t see how it would manage to stay up. Then he started meeting some of the locals, for some strange reason most seemed startled at meeting a cat beastfolk swimming.

    He quickly arrived in New Town, amid numerous curious onlookers, and was easily able to locate the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.

    Tomcat swam into the guild house and asked to see the guildmaster.

    Sildanus, who much to his frustration was still stuck with the job, invited him into his office. They traversed the waterlock and were soon in a partially air filled room. After making himself comfortable behind his desk, Sildanus indicated a handful of chairs.

    Tomcat sat, ¡°Guildmaster, unless we¡¯re mistaken you are the de facto leader of this community. I have a series of documents pertaining to New Town that I have been instructed to deliver this settlement¡¯s leader or leaders. Unfortunately they are all copies so you will need to take them on trust.¡±

    Sildanus looked back at Tomcat suspiciously, ¡°Is this some kind of threat?¡±

    ¡°In a way, oh, not from me or Mother, but we somehow got our claws on this. and as it pertains to your settlement we thought it only polite as neighbours to hand you a copy.¡±

    * * *

    Sildanus reluctantly received the package of papers and watched Tomcat leave, then after checking that he still had an ample supply of dwarf-brewed ale, he sent for Tankard Strongarm.

    The two unofficial leaders of New Town went through the papers with growing alarm.

    ¡°How do we even start confirming this?¡± asked Sildanus.

    ¡°I could ask my brother to get this looked into, but we dwarves aren¡¯t particularly subtle, who did you say sent us this, are they reliable?¡±

    ¡°Tomcat mentioned he¡¯d been sent, and mentioned Mother.¡±

    ¡°The dungeon, Mother of Monsters?¡± Tankard blurted alarmed.

    ¡°Well she is the one being threatened...¡± offered Sildanus.

    * * *

    Meanwhile Tomcat was climbing back aboard his ship and ordering the crew to cast off, next stop Drakoton.

    The overnight journey went smoothly and the sun was high overhead when they finally came into sight of the island of Jarvoon. Tomcat ordered the sails shortened as they sailed past several clumsy square-rigged merchantmen.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    When the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory entered the busy harbour of Drakoton, Tomcat was standing on her quarterdeck stroking the rail and purring. Docking proceeded smoothly. The White Dolphin Company now had an arrangement with the dock master that facilitated docking and the payment of dock fees.

    After dealing with the formalities and arranging for his crew to take some shore leave in rotation, he made his way to the Chandelry.

    So once again Tomcat found himself entering Serrenica¡¯s Chandelry, he blinked in surprise, the place looked more prosperous somehow. The young man behind the counter immediately ushered him into the office. Serrenica rose and welcomed him to her establishment and offered refreshments.

    Tomcat relaxed in the comfortable chair sipping his brandy and handed the White Dolphin Shipping Company¡¯s representative a folder containg most of the information they had on the pirate backer¡¯s plans.

    He waited patiently while Serenica skimmed the documents. When she looked up, alarmed Tomcat said, ¡°You will understand that when they reach the next stage our ships will cease calling at this port. I suspect that this interupption of trade will not last long, as I suspect this city will not tolerate having it¡¯s lifeline interrupted in this way for long.¡±

    Serrenica quickly scanned the documents again, getting angrier the more she read. She looked up, ¡°can I show these to friends, to other shipping agents?¡±

    ¡°Certainly, nothing there is... um, truly secret, but they¡¯re only copies. Are you sure that will be enough,¡± enquired Tomcat.

    Serenica smiled nastily, ¡°Oh yes, some people are going to be very unhappy.¡±

    Tomcat grinned as he left, ¡®Mother was right this is going to be fun!¡¯ he thought.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C PARIS WOLFMAN * * *

    Paris Wolfman was conferring with his fellow triumvars, Port Salvage was theirs, the pirates and the majority of the street thugs were no more. Now they had to rebuild and build bridges to the other inhabitants of Freedom Isle, of which Port Salvage was the principal port.

    Daorn and Feranna were still shocked at the rapid recovery of their town, and consequently, somewhat wary of their fellow triumvar, who had just so emphatically demonstrated the force he controlled.

    Paris tried to reassure them, ¡°Look, some of the fighters are mine, some were recruited here in Port Salvage the rest were loaned to me by the White Dolphin Shipping Company. They quite naturally wanted an end to the pirates and decided that they could secure that aim by supporting us. If you want them to, they will leave.¡±

    ¡°No, no, not yet. We need to establish some kind of ¨C agreement with the rest of the isle too, and there are still the bandits,¡± decided Feranna.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary yawned as she made her way to her jeep. ¡®It¡¯s too early to have to get up for school,¡¯ she thought to herself. ¡®Now if it was to go fishin¡¯...¡¯ A frog¡¯s indignant croaking brought her up short, she sighed with resignation. There was another frog on the drivers seat of her jeep, and she couldn¡¯t for the life of her figure out how were getting there.

    ¡°Beep local kids an¡¯ their jokes,¡± she grumbled to herself as she picked up the indignant amphibian. Then she crossed the lawn to the fence between their property and Greg¡¯s. Greg was, as usual, tidying his already immaculate garden.

    ¡°Mornin¡¯ Greg want another frog for your pond?¡± she asked holding up the indignant frog.

    Greg came over to the fence and peered at the frog, ¡°Nice, another of those foreign frogs.¡± Greg took hold of the frog firmly, and Mary gladly released it. ¡°Gonna get one of those university guys round later, they couldn¡¯t id the vid of the last one ya gave me.¡±

    ¡°¡¯K bye, see you later,¡± said Mary with a wave as she returned to her jeep and hopped in. She kicked something by the pedals; she checked and then hauled out a large and rather battered screwdriver. ¡°Beep kids,¡± she grumbled as she tossed the screwdriver into the back before starting her jeep up and heading for school where she dumped the screwdriver in the first litterbin she encountered.

    * * *

    After spending a very frustrating day at school, Rosie the brainless had been particularly obnoxious today. Well that brainless crack probably didn¡¯t help, and then she¡¯d had to pick up Rosie¡¯s boyfriend and toss him out of the way, so she could leave the cafeteria. Why that got everyone talkin¡¯ she couldn¡¯t figure out but... but that led to the chat with the councillor and threats of having to see a shrink. Guess yawning an¡¯ almost fallin¡¯ asleep didn¡¯t go over well.

    She was in such a hurry when she jumped into her jeep and left the school¡¯s parking lot, that she hadn¡¯t noticed the two charred and partially melted pieces of plastic and electronics that had dropped from her jeep, and remained behind on the tarmac.

    Then when she finally got home, she¡¯d had to listen and pretend interest to Greg rabbitin¡¯ on about how his name was goin¡¯ to be immortalised as the scientific name of a new species of frog.

    She hadn¡¯t meant to go today, but she just couldn¡¯t help it, she grabbed her fishing stuff and was off. She really needed to relax and decompress.

    * * * EARTH ¨C AGENT MULLER * * *

    Agent Muller was awakened by a panicky phone call from Sandra. He did his best to calm her down, and he thought he just might have succeeded. That led to him having to make several phone calls. Finally he reluctantly phoned director Hutchinson.

    The call started badly and didn¡¯t get any better when Hutchinson came out with, ¡°I¡¯m telling you Muller we have to quarantine everyone affected and everyone they¡¯ve come into contact with.¡±

    Muller prayed for patience, ¡°Mr Hutchinson I¡¯m not the person you should be talking to about this, I¡¯m only a field agent.¡± ¡®Quarantine right! The Hawaii islands for a start then thanks to all the airlines... !¡¯

    Muller listened to another rant that showed quite clearly the man hadn¡¯t read his briefing material.

    ¡°No sir, she¡¯s not a genetic scientist, she¡¯s a student, a sixteen year old girl!¡± explained an exasperated Muller, before he yanked his phone from his ear in order to save his ear drum.

    ¡°Again sir may I respectfully point out that I can¡¯t make those kind of decisions.¡± ¡®You paranoid Idiot!¡¯

    It took Muller over an hour before he was able to bring this call to an end.

    Then more bad news arrived, Sandra had indeed turned into a catgirl and was currently interned in the hospital for observation. And he was very politely requested to report there for tests. Additionally his partner had been reassigned and he had been removed from the case.

    He spent several tedious hours undergoing tests. At least he was able to spend time with an emotionally shaky Sandra.

    Later that afternoon he and Sandra gained a most unwelcome neighbour. Somehow Mr Hutchinson had been infected.

    Somehow despite not having come into contact with any of the affected, he had changed for the worse. He had grown, and he was around two meters tall, with a slightly curved spine and forward jutting head. His skin had turned an unpleasant flat yellow, liberably covered with brownish warty bumps, and his black hair now sported dull green streaks. Despite his eyes now having white pupils he could see quite well though he was dicomforted by bright lights.

 Chapter 36

    Once again Tomcat conned his beloved Alessandrina¡¯s Glory into Drakoton harbour, he had a message and request for Steve from Mother. Message delivered and arrangements made for the pickup of some of the Badger folk he headed to see if Serrenica needed anything.

    ¡®Funny how names change,¡± he mused to himself, ¡®especially when they¡¯re new.¡¯

    Serrenica received him in her office, ¡°Your company was right, a consortium of the more trade oriented names in those papers has charted three merchantmen from Filx, Mardew and Garrity. They have also contacted several other agent in town including me. They seem very keen to obtain fast ships, the idiot even dropped the word ¡®scouts¡¯. They want the ships for late summer.¡±

    Tomcat nodded.

    ¡°Oh and you have a cargo to pick up for your CEO, what¡¯s a CEO anyway?¡±

    ¡°Stands for Chief Executive Officer or something like that, didn¡¯t know we had one as Mother¡¯s the one and only boss.¡±

    ¡°Hmph, anyway a cat beastman like you has a cargo to deliver, he¡¯s staying at the Golden Bells down by the waterfront, his name¡¯s James Cruz, one of the Twiceborn and I¡¯m glad I wasn¡¯t asked to acquire them,¡± concluded Serrenica.

    An intrigued Tomcat¡¯s next stop was the Golden Bells, this proved to be a large rambling inn that had seen better days. A query at what passed for the inn¡¯s reception soon produced James Cruz who was wearing some ridiculous uncomfortable looking boots and carrying a large oddly shaped hat.

    ¡°Howdy friend, you wouldn¡¯t happen to be Thomas Felix would you?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but please call me Tomcat. What may I do for you?¡±

    ¡°Got a delivery for your CEO. Like your name, you from Earth?¡±

    ¡°No but I believe Mother is.¡±

    ¡°Heh, so am I, Me I was a proud citizen of the Republic of Texas and New Mexico and a subject of his serenity, President for Life JR Ewing.¡±

    ¡°Err, Right, don¡¯t think you¡¯re from the same world.¡±

    They were walking as they went and not far from the dock they turned into a public warehouse and stopped in front of a sturdy cage containing two well fed Tigers.

    ¡°Well here y¡¯are, all present and correct. Please sign here to acknowledge delivery, here¡¯s a letter for your CEO and all that leaves is to pay for the transport.¡±

    Tomcat signed mechanically and waved aside the offer of payment as he watched James Cruz strut away in his high-heeled fancy boots.

    ¡®Now what does Mother want with these things and why didn¡¯t she tell me they were on order.¡¯

    He was just coming in sight of the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory when he heard a familiar feminine voice behind him, an angry feminine voice.

    ¡°Thomas you rat bastard why did you tell me I couldn¡¯t get pregnant if we had some fun, just look at me you bastard.¡±

    Tomcat spun round and yes it was Marinara, a very much dishevelled and pregnant Marinara. ¡°But... I was always told...¡±

    ¡°Well you was told wrong. Father threw me out when your, our baby showed.¡±

    There followed a long discussion which resulted in Marinara being settled in one of the passenger cabins on the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory. The Tigers were loaded together with a hastily procured supply of fresh meat and after picking up Steve and a couple of his lieutenants along with most of the badger folk the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory headed to Port Salvage for Victoria and a few of her folk then Home.

    * * *

    ¡®Tigers? What the beep! Is someone havin¡¯ a joke at my expense?¡¯

    ? Hey Tomcat, what gives with the Tigers? ?

    ¡°Sorry mother, I thought you¡¯d ordered them. There¡¯s a letter.¡±

    ? ¡®K open it, let¡¯s see. ?

    ? Mmmm... ¡®K seems the System¡¯s been offering to upgrade the existin¡¯ cat folk so this Tiger guy is hopin¡¯ if I create my version of Tiger folk he¡¯ll win the lottery. ¡®K Tomcat get the two little kitties to my lab caverns after you dock. ?This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°Um Mother, can I get human women pregnant?¡±

    ? Yeah ¡®course you can an¡¯ your genes are dominant too. Why? ?

    ¡°Because the original cat beastfolk can¡¯t. Why didn¡¯t you tell us?¡±

    ? ¡®Cause it seemed obvious to me, you are mostly human after all. ?

    ¡®Oh God, Clarrina, Brandalla, Daiasama, Glorissama, Jessarra, Tarandella... Heartshorn? How do I...¡¯

    ¡°Um, Mother how about with... Elves?¡±

    ? Yeah them too, and ¡®fore you ask dwarves too. Basically any race that is fertile with humans is fertile with you lot... And yeah that goes for the Wolf and Badger boys an¡¯ girls too. ?

    * * *

    Mary, well Trisha received Victoria and Steve and a handful of their subordinates in the new complex Mary had built for the comfort of her man-rats, the meeting room had numerous suitably sized comfortabe chairs scattered around and a reinforced window giving a view of her underwater realm. The last an almost unanimous request from the man-rats themselves.

    ? Welcome home, I must say I am very impressed with your efforts. Steve your project is still ongoin¡¯ an¡¯ will likely remain so for some time yet. What do you need an¡¯ can you recommend anyone to head similar efforts in other towns in the Frezantel Archipellago. As for you Victoria, Port Salvage has been secured an¡¯ the island should follow. I have another challenging task that needs someone with either your or Steve¡¯s experience and talents. Would you be willin¡¯ to undertake it? Do you have someone to pass the Port Salvage task force to? ?

    ¡°Why yes Mother, Port Salvage is becoming decidedly boring, I¡¯m ready for another challenge, Silas here can take over for me, he¡¯ll probably do a better job than me now things are calming down.¡± Replied Victoria while Steve just nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯d rather remain in Drakoton and yes I have three of my folk that could handle something like that, I¡¯m sure Victoria has too.¡±

    ? Victoria¡¯s next job is going to need some of her best talent, between that and keeping a lid on Port Salvage I don¡¯t want to draw on any of her people. So what will we need, but first I have something for you, Creevar came through and after some development I have some enchanted rings that will allow you to assume human size, well the size of a small human for two hours at a time. It takes six hours to recharge itself from ambient manna. ?

    Trisha handed two rings to each Victoria and Steve, ¡°If you can find an enchanter you trust we can supply a skill crystal.¡±

    Then they got round to planning and considering the merits of the various towns of the Archipelago with regards to their ambitions.

    Then Mary made sure only Victoria and Trisha could hear her.

    ? Victoria you¡¯re going to set up a major staging post in Garonmouth, you will have three tasks, the most important is setting up a general information hub, the second is to see if you can infiltrate the Adventurer¡¯s Guild HQ, be very careful, I¡¯d prefer not getting¡¯ anythin¡¯ from them than lettin¡¯ ¡®em know you exist and lastly see if you can make contact with the rat folk that are workin¡¯ with Creevar. ?

    ? Figure you¡¯ll need cash to buy somewhere to set up a hidden docking cavern for the catamarans, badgers an¡¯ meerkats for the tunnelin¡¯ an someone to front for you up top. Let me know what you need ¡®K. ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Mary was sick and tired of the school councillor pestering her with irrelevant advice about her situation, mama might be a single parent but papa was there in the background still, sure a long way away usually but... and now the twit was sure she was failing in her studies... honestly why did the school have to employ this incompetent idiot and force the pupils to listen to him.

    She sat back in a chair in the library after the frustrating meeting and gazed blankly into the distance.

    Then she felt something off. She concentrated and it was as if she was seeing her jeep in the parking lot. Two guys were fiddling around, one of them attached something under the rear bumper whilst the second hid something under the dashboard. She knew she could destroy those things with a thought and more frighteningly she now knew where the frogs came from.

    She looked back, just like scrolling back a film, oh well a thief and a vandal, no loss there.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Agent Amanda Tremillio learnt that she had been reassigned shortly after reporting in for the day, her new partner was the eccentric veteran Peppone who had been marking time awaiting his retirement.

    They quickly caught up on the paperwork and Tremillio cursed Muller¡¯s absence when they missed the British couple first at their hotel then at the airport. They phoned in a report th the Big Island office to see if someone could intercept them at the airport for questioning.

    At least they managed to question everyone else on their list that day.

    Back at the office they overheard on of the tech guys making excuses, apparently an attempt to bug and place a tracer on a car had failed spectacularly when the devices had shorted and burned shortly after installation.

    Then she and Peppone plus a couple of other teams had to go to the hospital because Director Hutchinson had gone mad and almost killed a nurse, Muller, Muller¡¯s girlfriend and did kill a security guard who tried to restrain him.

    * * *

    Muller left the room when a nurse arrived to examine Sandra. He was just in time to see another nurse enter director Hutchinson¡¯s room, he only caught a brief glimpse but he could have sworn she had green hair.

    Then he heard Hutchinson roar with rage followed by a bellow that might have been something on th lines of ¡°kill you¡± a woman¡¯s scream followed by a loud smack and a thud. Muller ran to the door of Hutchinson¡¯s room and stopped appalled at what he saw. Hutchingson was reaching for the nurse who was lying slumped at the foot of a cracked wall.

    ¡°Director Hutchinson what are you doing?¡±

    Hutchinson looked at Muller standing in the door and replied, ¡°I¡¯m going to kill the freak!¡± Then he once again screamed in rage and charged Muller slamming a fist into his ribs. Muller heard his ribs break as he flew backward and slammed into the corridor wall cracking his head against the wall and dropping unconscious to the floor.

 Chapter 37

    ¡°Trisha come look, flying jellyfish,¡± shrieked Trisha¡¯s young cousin Jarica.

    Trisha emerged from her home, ¡°what are you doing here alone Jerica, where¡¯s your mum?¡±

    ¡°Another one!¡± shrieked Jarica in her piercing voice, ¡°oh hi aunty Trisha look at the jellyfish, aren¡¯t they pretty with the sun shining through them?¡±

    Trisha looked up, ¡°Wha...?¡±

    ? Mary what are you up to now, why are there seven jellyfish floating in the sky above the lagoon? ?

    ? Morning Trish, I need some aerial recon but I agree the jellyfish won¡¯t cut it, cool though doncha think? ?

    ? Um... they aren¡¯t going to get out of your domain are they? Please say they aren¡¯t. ?

    ? They shouldn¡¯t, but if they do so what? ?

    Trisha watched the jellyfish floating up into the blue sky for a moment longer in resignation before returning her attention to her niece, ¡°now Jerica, why are you here and where is your mother and does she know where you are?¡±

    ¡°I told her I was going to the dungeon, did you know there is a new set of rooms behind a hidden door with a real cool story.¡±

    Wishing for patience Trisha sighed softly, ¡°Jerica the dungeon is more than a kilometre from here.¡±

    ¡°But auntie this new story is about two kids and an evil ice sorceress it¡¯s...¡±

    ¡°Yes I know, but before you tell me all about it let¡¯s get you home.¡±

    * * *

    Mary left a fraction of her attention tracking her highly flammable new creatures and turned her attention to the mysterious soul link that had recently made itself very obvious, she found it ridiculously easy to send her attention down this so took precautions.

    ¡®Hey it¡¯s me, and I¡¯m sleeping, lessee... Yeah trouble thy name is Bluey specially with a mix of Mary. Beep Bluey you¡¯re turnin¡¯ me into an avatar of myself... Beep that sounds wrong... Well if tha¡¯s the case then let¡¯s give me a second avatar option... an¡¯ do some strengthenin¡¯ don¡¯ like all those strengthened muscles with a standard skeletal structure.¡¯

    Mary introduced a tendril of her hoarded divine manna into her other, no Mary¡¯s core and added defences and knowledge, especially how to form and inhabit her Avatars both human and Dolphin. What she didn¡¯t notice was her core updating itself with information it found in its Earthside twin.

    Then Mary undertook the more delicate task of reinforcing her, no Mary¡¯s bones and tendons using carbon nanotube based bio-tech she had been using with her monsters, for good measure she decided to subtly toughen their skin, dolphin and human.

    ¡®Now what¡¯s next...¡¯ but at this point her attention was jerked back to her dungeon, something was attacking her jellyfish.

    That something was a very large seagull, in fact it looked like an albatross. The jellyfish were floating up into the ¨C fight? ¨C one by one and finally the albatross fell into the lagoon.

    ¡®Albatross, now that has promise when it comes to aerial recon.¡¯If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    * * *

    Tomcat was pacing his quarterdeck, he had installed Marinara in a house in Silverton and introduced her to everyone he knew, he¡¯d even had her checked out by the temple healer. Twins he was going to be the father of twins. Surely the others wouldn¡¯t all be pregnant too. For the first time in his life he was feeling apprehensive as his Alessandrina¡¯s Glory left harbour. First Port salvage for Victoria to settle things and arrange for her successor to take over, and for him to look up Brandalla and Jessarra

    Then Garonmouth and that playful elven maid Heartshorn.

    In her quarters Victoria was plotting and admiring the carving of the ¡®Spirit Dolphin¡¯ that talented native had had on sale. Thankfully he hadn¡¯t been aware of just how much some collectors in the larger towns would have paid for it. She was going to be away from Mother for a long time it was good to have something like this from Home.

    That old man, the former servant seemed solid, she thought he would do splendidly as the presumed purchaser of the land they would build their cavern bound harbour and town under. How could they manage to infiltrate the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, what magical defences would they have under the building? Pete and Shirley¡¯s son would be a great asset, he had already proved his courage also.

    Yes, Victoria plotted gleefully.

    * * * INTERLUDE * * *

    Mary swatted the alarm and felt something crumble and shatter. Suddenly she was wide awake as she examined the shattered remains of her clock. She examined her palm, nope not one scratch, she knew she was getting stronger but...

    She checked her status hoping for a clue, it appeared unchanged, no not quite her strength and endurance were up and she now had natural armour.

    ¡°Bluey what gives, how can I have armour?¡±

    ? Mary Silvestre, Mother of Monsters added armour to your skin last night. ?

    ¡°Mother of Monsters? What do you mean Mother of Monsters?¡±

    ? Mother of Monsters is your title on Parthia. ?

    Mary got a little wild eyed and asked in a whisper/shout. ¡°My other self visited and changed me? What else did she do?¡±

    ? Updated your core, strengthened tendons and skeleton. ?

    Mary checked her status again and homed in on the dungeon core entry. The thing that immediately caught her attention was ¡°Dolphin¡± then their was the sound of ripping cloth and a pale grey blue eyed dolphin was lying on her bed, Mary just blinked bemused and looked herself over in the floor length mirrors that were her wardrobe doors.

    ¡°Dolphin¡± was under Avatar and under ¡°Human¡± and just like Mary was a human again. ¡®Oh cool I can change into a Dolphin, just wait ¡®til I show Dancer.¡¯

    Breakfast was a dance as she tried ¨C and thankfully succeeded ¨C to avoid breaking anything, then off to school, ah well the daily grind of a teenager.

    As she approached her jeep a pair of obvious gang members stepped into her drive, one was brandishing a puny looking revolver, she blinked surprised that something seemed to be telling her the thing was not dangerous. She stopped by her Jeep and contemplated the two thugs.

    ¡°Get lost, nothin¡¯ here for you, move ¡®fore I set the cops on you for trepassin¡¯.¡±

    Bing was enraged, he¡¯d never had a girl diss him like this before, ¡°Where¡¯s Joey, he tol¡¯ us he was jacking your wheels an¡¯ he¡¯s vanished.

    Mary sneered, ¡°Swimmin¡¯ with the other froggies in the pond next door, now vanish.¡±

    Bing lost it he pulled the trigger and Mary felt something thump her in the stomach and she charged, Bing fired again, and again. The first hit Mary in the shoulder and ricocheted away the third went over her shoulder. Her return blow launched with her full strength and with the speed of her charge added caved in Bing¡¯s chest and drove splintered ribs into heart and lungs.

    When the big girl charged Rooter hauled out his switchblade and rammed into her side, for his pains Mary backhanded him and shattered his jaw.

    * * *

    The two officers in the nondescript car parked close to the Silvestre home were ready for another boring day, all the girl seemed to do was school, fishing and home. No boyfriends, no parties, well except for that barbecue old Foxy had crashed and told them about.

    Then when the girl left the house two members of the Crimson Crush stepped out of hiding and confronted her. They got out of their car in case the girl needed help. They started to run drawing their guns when they heard shots.

    They saw the leader of the two shooting and then the other slamming a knife into the girl¡¯s chest and they just stared in bemusement as the girl¡¯s assailants were felled, ¡°Police, you OK miss?¡± asked Hans as he holstered his gun.

    Then it became a public circus, ambulances, patrol cars, morgue van, detectives, press and TV vans.

    ¡®Oh Beep! This can¡¯t be good.¡¯ Thought Mary as she leant against her Jeep refusing to say anything as she awaited the arrival of the lawyer Flip recommended.

 Chapter 38

    The brief stop at Port Salvage proceeded smoothly, cargo was offloaded and a speculative cargo was obtained by the purser. Victoria settled things and selected several of her folk for her new team and prepared to board the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory once again.

    Tomcat however had mixed fortunes, he discovered that Jessarra had married a local shopkeeper, and he visited her to wish her luck in her new life and to deliver a belated wedding present. When he was looking for Brandalla however her father and brothers accosted him.

    It soon became clear to Tomcat that nothing he could say would do him any good, Brandalla¡¯s father just wanted to bleed him mentioning that as a ship¡¯s captain and representative of a shipping company run by his mother he could undoubtedly afford dowries for all his girls and a comfortable room or better yet flat for his mistress. The males of the family hinted at the dire consequences that could follow a refusal.

    Despite the fact that for Tomcat the sums requested for Brandalla¡¯s three sisters were paltry he didn¡¯t want to simply hand over the cash to this appallingly mercenary bunch. Using the excuse that he would have to arrange for one of his letters of credit to be converted into cash the arranged to meet the surprisingly unaggrieved relatives plus Brandella on the following day at the Drunken Sailor he headed off to consult with Paris and hopefully, Victoria.

    The next day was informative and somewhat depressing for Tomcat but on the whole he was satisfied with his life when he left Port Salvage on the day after that. Victoria and her enlarged retinue had been irritatingly amused at his situation but he grudgingly admitted to himself that if the shoe had been on the other foot he would have been just as amused. He just hoped Garonmouth would go as smoothly.

    Alas for Tomcat it did not. As soon as the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory had tied up to the dock and the gangplank had been secured an angry pregnant elf stormed up it and cornered him on the quarterdeck. Numerous ears strained to pick up the elf¡¯s tirade as their owners carried on with their tasks whilst relishing their captain¡¯s discomfort.

    Tomcat caved almost without a fight, Heartshorn wanted to meet Mother, all well and good, there might be problems with Marinara but that wasn¡¯t now, she wanted a cabin, she could have the best cabin, she wanted to fetch her songbirds, dogs and cat, fine, at least he now knew what those small fur covered cylinders were, how did anyone tell which end was which? Cat? That was a frigging Lynx! Oh well no matter Mother might find it, no her interesting.

    It was a full two hours later before he could proceed with his errands, mentally he added one, he had to procure a male lynx, it might be a trivial revenge for his humiliation but it suited his sense of humour.

    It took Tomcat and Fashent the retired servant to locate a suitable plot of land that was available for purchase. They ended up spending more than either wanted but less than the sum Mother had allocated. It was a derelict farm that abutted on the sea cliffs and was almost mid way between Garonmouth and the fishing village of Seercove. As Fashent had relatives in both locations it was ideal.

    The badgers were soon driving a well filled wagon to the farm along with some local craftsmen. The old farmhouse was demolished and a new, rather more prosperous building was erected closer to the cliffs. A small shrine to Ocidon was added near the house. No sooner had the human craftsmen left satisfied than the Badger Folk started tunnelling down, they were soon joined by the meerkat folk and a few man-rats.

    They were interrupted when Arbol¡¯tar, a taciturn middle aged priest ofOcidon, turned up having heard the rumour that some eccentric old geezer had built a shrine to Ocidon on his land. Arbol¡¯tar recognised Fashent and greeted him with a smile. The shrine was well built and was presided over by a beautiful new style marble statue of Ocidon. But it contained a tiny open chapel presided over by the statue of a leaping dolphin. Arbol¡¯tar was regarding this with some indignation when he sensed his God¡¯s amused approval of the addition. That was good enough for Arbol¡¯tar and he consecrated the shrine in front of Fashent, eight badger folk and numerous small curious animals.

    As soon as the badgers had the docking cavern partially ready Tomcat took his ship out to sea and sailed north. He heaved to when near the docking cave and ordered the man-rat¡¯s four catamarans lowered along with the eight man-rats that were crewing them for the short trip.

    Then it was full sail for home.

    * * * INTERLUDE * * *

    Mary found herself along with her lawyer in the rather spartan interrogation room of the local police station, or thanks to her mama¡¯s influence the local cop shop. They were currently seated across from two of the local detectives.

    Mary just sat back in the creaking chair she had been offered eliciting some muted cracking sounds. ¡°Hey is this chair safe?¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Call me Trev her lawyer looked at his client in irritation just in time to see the chair in question collapse depositing his client on the floor amidst splinters and broken wood.

    Well that resulted in a fairly prolonged hiatus while lawyer and police negotiated and new chair was produced. Mary for her part just watched with a slight smile and said as little as possible just raising an eyebrow mockingly when one of the detectives mentioned excessive force. As for the accusation that she was bulletproof that elicited a two word reply, ¡°Am not.¡±

    ¡°So how do you explain that you were unhurt by the two shots that hit you?¡±

    ¡°My fairy godmother visited me last night, she helped me out.¡±

    Trev frowned, ¡°you should tell the truth, fairy tales won¡¯t help either of us.¡±

    Mary shrugged, ¡°¡¯K, can¡¯t explain ¡®cause I dunno why.¡±

    ¡®Well that¡¯s today shot, wonder when the feds will arrive?¡¯

    * * *

    ¡°Tremillio, Peppone the chief wants a word with you now.¡±

    The two agents shared a look and headed to the chief¡¯s office, once there they knocked, entered and took the indicated seats.

    ¡°Morning, I think I can safely say you haven¡¯t got anything urgent on today?¡± he paused for a second before continuing, ¡°one of yours has been involved in a ¨C affray and has been taken in for questioning, just routine from what I understand. The thing is some researchers from the CDC want to talk with her and we were asked to ensure that she would be present to use our secure video conference facilities.¡±

    Tremillio glanced sideways at Peppone before asking, ¡°Who and where do we find her.¡±

    ¡°Ms Silvestre, she caved in the shooter¡¯s chest with one punch, coroner has cause of death as massive blunt trauma to the chest and shattered the knife wielder¡¯s jaw with a backhand slap. She was hit twice by the perps pistol and once by a knife but suffered only some bruising.¡±

    ¡°Are we sure the bullets hit?¡± asked Peppone.

    ¡°Yes. Go get her before the police release her and see if you can persuade her to attend the teleconference. If you can persuade her to undergo a full medical all the better, we need to get all the information we can on the affected.¡± Then after Tremillio and Peppone rose to leave, ¡°take Ceejay with you, he¡¯s a civilian helper we recruited on your recommendation,¡± the chief glanced down at his desk, selected a sheet of paper and held it out, ¡°here¡¯s what we have on our Computer Wizard lvl three, he¡¯s got the evaluate skill.¡±

    The two agents returned to their desks and quickly updated themselves, Tremillio looked up when she heard Peppone curse. She accepted his invitation and moved to where she could see his laptop¡¯s screen. The clip was on youtube and it was obviously taken by one of the officers bodycams.

    The two shut down their computers and hurried out pausing only to locate Ceejay Lockley before grabbing a roomy SUV. During the ride they interrogated Ceejay trying to understand what he did, thinking back Tremillio asked Ceejay to use his evaluate on her and let her know what he found out.

    Ceejay did so and replied, ¡°Amanda Tremillio Race Human Class N/A Level N/A.¡±

    Tremillio narrowed her eyes in suspicion, ¡°Is that all? No middle name, no value for Strength and Intelligence?¡±

    ¡°Um no, I can tell you mine but evaluate only gives the basics, name, race, class and level.¡±

    Tremillio addressed Peppone, ¡°Ms Silvestre evaluated me and Muller and told us our strength and intelligence.¡±

    They arrived at the police station and presented their credentials, after some explanations they were shown into a interrogation room containing their target and three other people.

    ¡°Why Agent Tremillio, nice to meet you again, who are your friends, this is Trev Malvoisin my lawyer,¡± said Mary as they entered the room.

    * * *

    Introduction followed and the discussions that ensued soon had Mary bored to tears so she opened up her system interface and started to peruse options. Storage devices looked good, she¡¯d always wanted a bag of holding as her purse seemed to be forever overflowing. She had enough saved points to get the skills needed to acquire the skill and the minimums to use it so she quietly entertained herself learning enchanting. Then something flipped and she was inundated by a spate of messages from the system.

    ¡®¡¯K lesse what the beep happened now.¡¯

    She slowly scrolled down the list, ¡®so conditions met, mmm, race change, class updated and level up times two.¡¯

    A now worried Mary called up her status to check on the damage. ¡®Race? What the? Human / Dungeon Core. So class? Oceanic Ranger subclass Enchanter. What happened to Scholar? Um lesse, Enchanter supersedes Scholar, no skills lost. Whew so ¡®K, Level? Thirteen! When did I even achieve ten?¡¯ Some more frantic message scanning, ¡®right the fight! Um I really have to go through all these beep system messages more often, now can I hide my status? Um, maybe, right I¡¯ll try that.¡¯

    Mary surfaced under the bemused gazes of all present.

    ¡°It¡¯s ok, as this is a safe location the System has just hit her with a slew of urgent messages. Mind if I ask what?¡± said Ceejay.

    ¡°Yeah...¡± Mary looked at her lawyer who gave the arranged signal to answer with a minimum of information. ¡°Class modification, Scholar into Enchanter an¡¯ multiple level ups due to the change an¡¯ the small contretemps earlier.¡±

    ¡°A magic class, cool, can you enchant my tablet?¡± asked Ceejay producing said tablet.

    Mary studied it for a moment, ¡°most possibilities are greyed, could toughen it an¡¯ boost signal strength maybe.¡±

    ¡°Never mind that, Mary your lawyer agreed that we can ask you if you would allow us to take the two of you to where we have a secure teleconference set up, some very important people want to speak with you.¡±

    Mary travelled in her lawyer¡¯s car as they followed the government approved black SUV, she made use of the journey to inform him about the blue screens and the apparent race changes citing the British couple who had attended her barbeque. She also mentioned the previous visits by the FBI and what had been said.

    Trev mulled over his client¡¯s story and only the very apparent government interest gave it any credence, so he outlined what to avoid saying while keeping his eyes on the road.

 Chapter 39

    Mary was mulling over her options, she wanted aerial recon capability and she needed a fast messenger service, her fast ships just weren¡¯t cutting it. The hydrogen producing jellyfish were fun but otherwise a waste of time, the albatross had great eyesight but it was dumb and had a one track mind to boot the wyverns, both varieties were just too big. What to make, winged sphinx, no, manticore, nope, some kind of bat, too limited.

    ¡®Now if I took the wyvern and shrunk it to the size of a large hawk or small eagle, that would allow the thing to devote more of its brains for thinking with less body to control. The mouth could be adapted for speech easily enough, maybe I could add arms or make the feet more flexible to serve as hands... Yeah I¡¯ll try that. Wish I had a dragon to play with.¡¯

    Mary became aware of her surroundings once again and focused on the merchantman that had just entered her domain, she scanned it and relaxed, no adventurers or soldiers but the well dressed woman at the rail was carrying two little embryos, by the genetic signature they were Tomcat¡¯s, she was really sorry she couldn¡¯t grin but she could share the news with Drina and Trish and did.

    ? Hey Trish care to help, I want to find something out via the System¡¯s interface and you¡¯re much better than me at that. ?

    A giggling Trisha agreed to help and was soon digging through blue screens while Mary looked on. They noted that ¡®Unnamed ¨C Sandrinna¡¯ was now ¡®Last Stand ¨C Sandrinna¡¯. What all had in common was the fact that they were in dire straights, especially Heaven¡¯s Belt he had a large group of rouge adventurers on his penultimate floor and his last floor was nearly bare.

    ? Wow Trish you¡¯re good with this System thingy, I think we can help Ralpindi survive but it¡¯s gonna cost him, can you put us in touch with them? ?

    ¡°Well no, but I can use the messenger service.¡±

    ? Please do, tell them we can save them but they¡¯ll owe us a big one, then tell them to merge the two big caverns on their last level into one and release or share control of it with me for half an hour. I have just the monster for them. ?

    Nightlight ceased his frantic searching through the system when he received Trisha¡¯s message. He promptly relayed it to his dungeon adding the source.

    ? We¡¯ll do it, if Blue Lagoon means us harm it¡¯ll only shorten our lives and or freedom by a day at most and those Badger Folk have been invaluable even if not enough. ?

    Ralpindi merged the caverns wondering what would need so much space. Then he ceded control of the cavern to the intruding force. He maintained just enough control to be able to see what was happening. He watched as half the floor deepened becoming a deep cavity that filled with water, then two forty-five meter long snake monsters slowly came into being. His huge cavern started to look somewhat small. Then a small portal opened and six well armed Tigermen stepped through. The portal vanished and control of the cavern returned to him along with control of the snake things. He inspected them with care and formed the template but there was no way he could afford to spawn one of those monsters for some time. At least he was confident that he would have the time now.

    ? Nightlight how can we best use those monsters? ?

    ¡°Why not just aim them at our enemies and let them use whatever tactics Blue Lagoon has programmed into them. I can¡¯t see any of the tanks lasting long against those things. What about the tigermen?¡±

    ? They¡¯re free willed like the Badger Folk I Suspect they are Tiger Folk and they belong to Blue Lagoon, will you go and talk to them see why they¡¯re here. ?

    Not long after Nightlight was back, ¡°boss they say Mother sent them to help then to establish themselves as an adventurer party on their way home.¡±

    * * *

    ? Hey Trish it worked, it worked, I can open a portal to a remote location if the local dungeon cedes control of the location to me, now got to create a little air filled labyrinth deep under the ocean to fool the locals of the various continents. ?

    ¡°What are you planning now?¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ? Plannin¡¯ why you know that Trish, I¡¯m gonna own this world... (snicker) Sorry Trish, (snicker) Too much work but I do intend to have tentacles in everything I can reach. ?

    Trish calmed down slowly as she glared at the half buried diamond.

    ? Might be able to do something similar with Folding Deep. ?

    ¡®Hey me, could use some help, any ideas.¡¯

    Mary stopped and concentrated on her link to the human her and Trisha froze in shock there were two of Mary.

    Mary watched the scene of organised chaos, If only her other me could use the dogsoldiers... Then she concentrated and installed Bluey¡¯s updated templates after she added a few extra tweaks on other core along with instructions for use and maintenance.

    * * *

    ? Damn it Nightlight, she¡¯s playing at politics and we¡¯re entangled with her. We will owe her our very existence. ?

    ¡°Hey boss, calm down we¡¯ll be fine, hey look here they come, that damn Tank is in front as usual, hey where¡¯s the other snake?¡±

    ? It slipped into the water, it¡¯s waiting underwater, it has fully functional gills. Not too surprising for an ocean dungeon monster. ?

    The tank roared his challenge as his party members dropped into their accustomed locations. The snake coiled back then shot its head forward for a lighting fast strike, its flank brushed against the tank sending him reeling as its mouth snapped closed around the party¡¯s mage biting her in half then with a sideways swipe the snake bit the healer pumping him full of poison before swallowing him whole. The remaining adventurers charged into the room only to be attacked by the other snake when they passed its position in the lake.

    The remaining adventurers broke and ran, Ralpindi noted with some bemusement that all the tanks had survived but none of the mages or healers had.

    * * *

    Drina, her brother, Joy and Pounce and a few of their friends were waiting for the ship to dock before swimming the channel so they could explore the new annexe in the story dungeon. They were all curious about Tomcat¡¯s lady friend. They got bored waiting for the slow merchantman and decided to head for the play dungeon.

    On the ship Tarandella watched with interest as a group of children swam across the channel stopping briefly to stare with interest at the ship she was in. They then dissapeared into the other island as the ship slowly turned into the small harbour.

    ¡®They certainly looked happy and nobody seemed worried about their safety, maybe this would work after all.¡¯ She thought to herself.

    * * * INTERLUDE * * *

    The teleconference had been going for some ten minutes and with the exception of Mary, Dr Jones and Dr Sebenschu all present and in conference were lost in the blizzard of technical jargon. Finally Dr Jones slumped in despair and Dr Sebenschu shook himself.

    ¡°So we¡¯re agreed, none of this is possible with what we know, Ms Silvestre we are both very interested in that experiment you used as an example. I suspect money and resources will be found for your uplift experiment with octopi.¡± Dr Jones looked unhappy, ¡°thank you all for your participation, please rest assured we will get to the bottom of this syndrome.¡±

    The screen blanked, ¡°Impressive, may I ask what¡¯s your Int?¡± asked CeeJay

    ¡°Thirty-two.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not possible, humans have a max of eighteen at level 1 and the max only goes up by one per level,¡± complained Ceejay.

    Mary smirked, ¡°an¡¯ what has that to do with me, I¡¯m unique.¡±

    ¡°Will you allow us to arrange for a medical...¡±

    ¡°No! Sorry agent Tremillio, absolutely not,¡± asserted Mary.

    ¡°But Ms Silvestre we need to learn everything about this condition.¡±

    ¡°My client has said no and I see no pressing need for her to comply,¡± inserted Trev.

    Soon Mary was on her way home once again in her lawyer¡¯s car, then arrived on her street to a scene of absolute chaos, ¡°Oh beep! What now!¡±

    Mary squeezed herself out of Trev¡¯s BMW, ¡°Beep stupid streamlined cramped cars.¡± She stretched to get the kinks out of her back and centred herself in her core and considered her options and grinned. ¡®quick an¡¯ dirty it is. No froggies but pain, oh yeah lessee.¡¯

    Mary casually leant against a tree near the beginning of the street and concentrated, first on her watch where she added a pain field enchantment, they would have to touch her to be affected but... fun!

    Then she concentrated on her link and tried to pass the scene across focusing on the holy Joes waving placards around and screaming about God ordering them not to allow a witch to Live. That and the damn TV vans. ¡®Hey me, could use some help, any ideas.¡¯

    Seconds later her head felt overfull, ¡®Hey human me, added some updated templates you need to do... Have fun me tell the Badgers to deal with the beeps in the vans. Beep Bluey stop it with the beep beeps!¡±

    Mary studied the instructions and explanations she had left herself and chuckled, Trev was still waiting though. She glanced at the bushes lining the edge of the Anderson¡¯s property and grinned again and concentrated, why did nothing... oh right, so claim a bit, then try again. Recover domain lean back and watch.

    Twenty-four wolf folk in light armour and armed with clubs and shields raced out of the Anderson¡¯s garden, fell into two lined and charged the crowd and unlike the cops they didn¡¯t have to worry about harming the beep protestors, and they had some nice teeth too, hopefully their victims would agonise at being bitten by werewolves until the next full moon.

    Then ten Badger Folk trotted out of the Anderson¡¯s garden and skirted the crowd as they headed for the vulture¡¯s vans.

    ¡®Hmm, Vultures, now that¡¯s a real cool idea... I wonder,¡¯ both versions of Mary thought in delight.

 Chapter 40

    Steve called a conference of his team leaders, both veteran and newly appointed.

    ¡°Firstly, Mother is very pleased with our progress and sends her congratulations on a job well done, she is proud of you all, please pass that message on to your people.¡±

    Then he sighed, ¡°Mother believes there must be more to the pirate leaders plans than we¡¯ve seen so far, she pointed out that they can¡¯t be stupid, yet this plan is simply the same as the one that failed but with about three times more men and ships. And they had ample time to interrogate the survivors.¡±

    The man-rats around the table looked at each other with growing consternation.

    ¡°When you put it like that, yes it doesn¡¯t make sense does it? Have we missed someone?¡± put in Daniel.

    ¡°Huh, wonder if Ocidon asking us to share with his temple could be taken as a hint?¡± asked one of the others.

    Steve made as if to reply then froze with his mouth open, ¡°Yes! What if they¡¯re putting together a force to strike at the temple here so that they can use the inter temple gates to strike at the temple forces back at home directly?¡±

    ¡°But there¡¯s no temple gate back at home and even if there was they¡¯d find themselves in the middle of the lagoon. That¡¯s even stupider than the original plan.¡±

    ¡°But they don¡¯t know that, after all everyman knows that all temples are linked and I¡¯ll lay odds that they think the gate¡¯s in the fort. After all the temple¡¯s ships don¡¯t ply the route,¡± explained Steve.

    A short silence ensued and slowly, first one then all were nodding in agreement.

    ¡°Right, we¡¯ll keep on with what we¡¯re doing but remain alert for anyone building up or importing a force from their estates. We¡¯ll ask the Meerkat folk if they¡¯ll be willing to do some scouting outside town,¡± directed Steve.

    Lucretia stirred, ¡°we¡¯ll need soldiers if we¡¯re to help defend the temple, why don¡¯t we ask Mother to send her voice with a suitable escort to visit Viscount Travanne, he¡¯s not the idiot he pretends and we could probably work with him. We will need a suitable leader for this place after all.¡±

    * * *

    Tarandella looked round the small settlement with amusement, she didn¡¯t think her uncle would dream of looking for her in such a small place, she set out to look for a place to stay. Unsurprisingly there were no properties for rent but the Spirit Dolphin Inn was surprisingly comfortable and very affordable, they could even store her luggage.

    Next day she wandered round the tiny town or was it a large village. The wide eyed look of horror on the little girl¡¯s face along with a shocked ¡°You can¡¯t SWIM!¡± was an eye opener, she hadn¡¯t really noticed until then just how many of the locals swam, they even disdained boats and swam out to the Temple that seemed to float in the lagoon. And everyone seemed to move so fast in the water.

    On her third day she met Tomcat¡¯s other woman. By all accounts another inadvertent pregnancy because everyone knew beastfolk could¡¯t get humans pregnant or vice versa. Marinara was a pleasant enough sort and they got on well after they got past the mutual commiserations. After a shared lunch Mari as she preferred to be called asked one of the loitering kids if one of them could fetch Drina.

    Drina it turned out was a delightfully energetic little half-sea elf with masses of sea-green hair and a huge cat accompanied her. As soon as she arrived she told the loitering children that Mother had created a new hidden annex in the story dungeon. This led to an immediate excited exodus.

    ¡°So Drina will Mother speak with the mothers of her grandchildren?¡±

    Drina giggled, ¡°she sends her greetings and welcomes you both to her domain, she doesn¡¯t wish to intrude uninvited but if you so desire she will include you among the denizens of Silverton and Blue Lagoon.¡±

    ¡°But of course I want it for me and my little ones,¡± said Mari.

    ? Done, welcome to my realm Mari. ?

    Tarandella swallowed nervously, ¡°um, I¡¯ll have to think about it.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Nine people on tired dusty horses rode into Arsouk two hours after noon. One was obviously a prisoner as he was bound and wearing a mage mask and gag. The six ladies looked like typical adventurers, some of the onlookers recognised them as the Roving Valkyries. The other man looked like some kind of very minor noble, probably a knight by his equipment, the boy looked totally nondescript.

    They pulled up outside the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and the woman who appeared to be their leader and the knight entered the building while the rest of the party waited with their horses.

    Guildmaster Burritis attended them in person, ¡°welcome to Arsouk, I had word you were coming from guildmaster Isbetta, I can offer you a guide that knows the Last Stand dungeon very well indeed.¡±If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    ¡°That would be wonderful, when can we meet him and how far is the dungeon?¡± asked Palca the Widowmaker.

    ¡°It¡¯s a two day ride, slightly less with good horses, but you will need water as there is none on the trail,¡± replied Burritis.

    Palca glanced at Sir Cram¡¯ton and he nodded, ¡°agreed, no point wasting time.¡±

    They returned to their horses and headed out of town slowly until Guzz caught up with them at which point they resumed their fast pace.

    It was close to nightfall when they arrived at the dungeon¡¯s entrance, a sizeable cavern containing a well, and about two hundred meters away a rather desiccated hostel. Guzz entered the hostel to greet his friend who ran it and to arrange accommodations for the party.

    Abriman looked at his companions, squared his shoulders and entered the dungeon. He stopped in the second chamber and called out. ¡°Sandrinna, I have come in fulfilment of a vow, I fetch Rovoc the so called witch hunter for your justice.¡±

    ? Abriman? ?

    ¡°Yes Sandrinna this body is that of Abriman, I was Zarnjdfjgmn but I have truly become Abriman and a Paladin of Hel-Arlizzy.¡±

    There was a startled silence. ? You can hear me? ?

    ¡°I am a Paladin of Hel-Arlizzy, naturally I can hear dungeons.¡±

    ? I don¡¯t want that creature in my dungeon, can you share what you saw and know with Erekos? my Boss monster and Ermizhad. If so I will leave my vengeance in their hands. ?

    Erekos? and Ermizhad were not amused, Rovoc lasted three days before dying. Sir Cram¡¯ton collected his head and declared that the Count¡¯s executioner couldn¡¯t have done a better job. The visitors set out for Copper Town and home while Guzz got raring drunk, spent a day recovering then headed for Arsouk wishing he had that kid who could magic water out of thin air along.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary watched for a few more seconds as her wolf-boys and -girls ploughed into the crowd pushing it back violently the front line stepping over the fallen while the second line made sure the fallen were unconscious by clubbing the ones that moved and in some cases the ones that didn¡¯t.

    She stepped back to Trev¡¯s car, opened the door, ¡°Hey Trev, I¡¯m off to the next road, I plan to ask Liz if I can hop over her back fence and go home through the back, don¡¯t think I should be found here, there¡¯s too much publicity already.¡±

    Trev just nodded, watching entranced as a hoodlum he recognised as a professional agitator screamed something about police brutality as he hurled a Molotov cocktail at the thin line of police officers lining Ms Rowley¡¯s property¡¯s boundary. ¡®Dumb, really dumb, that¡¯s really not going to make those officers keen to help.¡¯

    Five members of the front line reacted at once, they formed a wedge as five members of the rear rank smoothly took their place and tore through the crowd reaching the professional agitators before they could scatter and lose themselves in the crowd.

    ? Great work! Take them down hard then continue with the plan. ?

    Tails wagging with pleasure they did so to the sound of breaking bones, then held their ground until the line of their brothers absorbed them once again.

    The two police officers not occupied with smothering the flames that had enveloped one of their own watched with grim satisfaction.

    * * *

    At the CNN local office the technicians cursed as their feed went down, the reporter standing in front of the blue wall fell silent as the feed was lost just when those police dogs were heading for the poor protestor who had thrown a bottle at the police.

    * * *

    Mary strode round to Liz¡¯s cut through her garden pausing only to skritch two of Liz¡¯s cats before hopping over the fence into her back yard. She then cut right and crossed the Kato¡¯s yard, they were on holiday after all and their dogs were currently residing in the local kennels. Then she crossed into the von Hindersin¡¯s property, the house was for sale so she felt safe. Manna was still pouring down her link allowing her to claim the entirety of the property as her domain, she made sure not to make the claim permanent.

    Next step was to dig out a series of comfortable caverns beneath the house to serve as a temporary barracks for her boys and girls and to open a well concealed secret door in the kitchen for access.

    The front door opened silently when the wolf and Badger folk arrived running and they disappeared inside door closing behind scant seconds before two police officers dashed into the yard guns in hand. Mary made the bushes on the far side of the property rustle and shake as if someone had just forced their way through them into Ember road. The two officers took the bait as Mary headed home.

    As she entered through the back she realised with some relief that mama wasn¡¯t home. ¡®Beep that poor cop, how can I, maybe that¡¯d work... Hey me, you think this would work?¡¯

    ¡®Hi me, interestin¡¯ idea, I like it, but I think you¡¯ll need to add...¡¯

    Mary grabbed some burn ointment and bandages and headed out of her front door and made her way down to where the cop was kneeling next to his badly injured partner, ¡®beep but the poor beep had taken a facefull of burning gasoline, it looked like he was blind!¡¯

    She dropped to her knee beside the injured man and passed the first aid supplies to his distraught partner, she carefully held the injured man¡¯s hand and thanked him for his help.

    ¡®So first, claim ¨C officer Meier then inform his DNA that all isn¡¯t right and it should use some of those fat reserves to fuel the healin¡¯ and regeneration of face and eyes, ¡®K now to pour in manna and start the process goin¡¯ an¡¯ no Bluey, Meier doesn¡¯t wanna be a lizardman. Just ¡®cause he¡¯s gonna regenerate this time it doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s gonna be a full time thing. ¡®K Bluey that kinda makes sense so ¨C NO! the poor bloke wouldn¡¯t be able to keep his job as an Ogre, Half Giant you say, how would that affect his mental stats, it wouldn¡¯t in this case? ¡®K an¡¯ I¡¯m holdin¡¯ you to that. Oops ¨C almost forgot, release claim!¡¯

    She was still holding the man¡¯s hand when the ambulances arrived. Meier was the first to be evacuated.

    She gave an indifferent look at the street littered with the bruised and injured, nodded to the cop who¡¯s partner had been hurt and headed back to the house. She stopped when she came to her jeep, scattered near it were a hammer, a couple of crowbars and a maul. She linked to her Jeep and grinned, ¡®five more froggies, serve ¡®em right for tryin¡¯ to trash my beauty. Now where?¡¯

    As usual one empty cooler was sitting in the back, she prepared it then quickly collected four frogs, it took her some time to find the fifth, but find it she did. Then she headed for the fence that separated their property from Greg¡¯s.

    ¡°Heya Greg, got more of those froggies for you.¡±

    Greg stopped his horrified staring at the street at this welcome news and hurried over to look at his new prizes. ¡°Yes they are, I wonder where they¡¯re coming from, I hope some of those are females this time.¡±

    ¡°Well that¡¯s seven frogs so far so I bet there¡¯ll be at least two,¡± Mary said to Greg¡¯s departing back.

    Then she reentered her home and awaited official visitors.

 Chapter 41

    Danilus welcomed Viriaathos and Rhondaa to his office, ¡°please sit, Mary has asked to borrow you, she needs to send her Voice to confer with Viscount Travanne. His estate is on the island of Jarvoon and not far from Drakoton. I believe she wants you to help plan the trip and to join her security detail.¡±

    Viriaathos looked at Rhondaa, ¡°so the time we feared is here, who are we to confer with and where?¡±

    ¡°You can use our meeting room, you will be conferring with Captains Goodfellow, Fisher and Hunter. Additionally Drina as the Voice will be present as will a man-rat called Daniel.¡±

    Viriaathos and Rhondaa headed down the stairs and entered the conference room to find their daughter already present, she was talking to a human woman that was almost as big as the huge tiger folk male that was lounging at the foot of the conference table. Then there was Daniel and a dangerous sleek looking cat folk girl and a soot black wolf folk man.

    The big woman smiled when they entered, hugged Drina around the shoulders and strode to take the seat at the head of the table.

    ¡°Welcome Rhondaa and Viriaathos, nice to meet you, now you¡¯re here lets get down to business, the tiger is Robin Goodfellow an¡¯ he¡¯s in charge of the bodyguards, Justin Hunter our wolf will be in charge of four squads of marines while Maxine Fisher will have two squads of my special forces.¡±

    Rhondaa opened her mouth to ask who the woman was when her Daughter interrupted, ¡°Mom, this is Mother, she has a new avatar, isn¡¯t it great?¡±

    Captain Goodfellow grinned showing a mouthful of sharp teeth, ¡°me and mine will handle close in defence, I have eight warriors and two mages all tiger ¡¯folk. An¡¯ fore you ask a squad has eight effectives and in this specific case one in every squad will be a mage or healer.¡±

    The planning went quickly and it was decided to sail on the morrows tide, everyone was to be on the Wave Skimmer half an hour before departure. Soon Viriaathos and Rhondaa were left alone with their excited daughter.

    After dispatching Drina to pack they returned to Danilus¡¯ office where they also found Rafael Twiceborn. After they had brought their high priest and captain of the temple guard up to date on the plans and on Mother¡¯s new avatar.

    Rafael looked grim, ¡°if Mary can spare such a force just as an escort just how many soldiers and adv... sorry special forces does she have?¡± he paused, ¡°should we add any guards to show our flag?¡±

    ¡°No! This is something for the dungeon and not for us to get involved in, Rhondaa and Viriaathos as Drina¡¯s parents are acceptable but I don¡¯t want any further involvement,¡± decided Danilus.

    * * *The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Mary released her avatar and settled back into her core and set about trying to recreate the old Warring States repeating crossbow. ¡®Best see if other me can locate plans.¡¯

    ? Hey Pete, how are your kids, do you have a couple of daredevils who would enjoy donning a ring of air breathing and ride a couple of sea wyverns to escort Drina? ?

    Pete answered sounding harassed, ¡°unfortunatrry that wourrd be most of them and not a couprre.¡±

    ? Good, then here is are a pair of skill crystals with the skill needed to control them and a couple of bonus spells. Send the volunteers to the underwater temple shortly after dawn tomorrow please. ?

    ¡°Robin and Danny will be there Mother.¡± Sighed Pete.

    * * *

    Next day dawned clear and bright with a brisk westerly breeze and the Wave Skimmer sailed on time with all present on board. As soon as the three-masted Bermuda-rigged schooner cleared the channel she spread all sail and was soon barrelling along at a speed few ships on Parthia could match.

    Then two largest of Mary¡¯s sea wyverns burst from the surface of the lagoon, overflew the channel and circled the Wave Skimmer before returning to the ocean swimming alongside the ship carrying the person they were tasked to escort.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    ¡°... man f¨¹r UFOs aus dem All

    Darum schickte ein General

    ''Ne Fliegerstaffel hinterher

    Alarm zu geben, wenn''s so w?r

    Dabei waren dort ...¡±

    Markus Wrangel was celebrating his recent promotion in his favourite nightclub in his hometown of Freiburg. The somewhat amateur sounding band was in full flow and he was on his third beer whilst looking for his next dance partner.

    Then he was on the floor, his head was throbbing and he felt as if someone had smashed him in the back of the head with a chair. He vaguely noted that his face was lying in a pool of blood before passing out.

    He woke to a pounding headache in a white room with dreams, no nightmares of a hellhole of a planet called Diavlo and the thought that he was ANS 7. He shook his head and whimpered at the pain.

    No ANS 7 had been killed by lizard men he was Markus Wrangel and he had always been Markus Wrangel. And then why was his vision filled with blue things, his head hurt too much to think much less read a lot of small print.

    He could just vaguely make out a nurse or was it a doctor through the blue haze.

    ¡°My head hurts, and why is everything blue?¡± he managed.

    Steffi jerked in surprise, ¡°you, you are seeing blue screens?¡±

    Markus clutched his head with both hands, ¡°blue things yes.¡±

    Steffi hit the alarm button and then prepared a painkiller for the patient.

    Markus noted that one of the blue things had vanished when he said yes, so he blinked blearily and tried again, ¡°Yes!¡± There was definitely less blurry blue, so, ¡°yes ¨C yes ¨C yes ¨C yes.¡± Good no more blue, he let his head fall back onto his pillow and passed out again.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary looked out of the window, nobody seemed interested in her so she sat back and practised her claiming ability, she claimed mama¡¯s house and yard, then the Kato¡¯s backyard and thus link her two domains into one. As soon as her domains merged everything suddenly was easy. Then she opened a corridor, no a tunnel from her house to the ¨C dungeon under the von Hindersin¡¯s house so that she could get food to her friends. And once again she was careful to say no to Bluey when he asked if she wanted to make the claim permanent.

    When the detectives came asking if she had witnessed anything she honestly told them that she had seen the street full of irrational idiots and that she had walked round to Liz¡¯s to jump the back fence and then when she made it home all she noticed was the poor officer on fire.

    ¡°How is he doin¡¯, I feel awful that he got hurt while gardin¡¯ my house. Any chance I could visit him in hospital?¡±

 Chapter 42

    Mary was happy for her sea sprite, Trisha was having so much fun networkin¡¯ an¡¯ planning a dungeon for the other her, it was well worth a favour or two, just so long as one or two remained for her own plans.

    Speakin¡¯ of plans, time to bully Ralpindi an¡¯ start, her mini dungeon under the sea floor was ready with an assortment of crabs, lobsters, those weird shrimps, snakes an¡¯ such, she even had a Jackalwere as a little surprise. Then she was kind of fond of the boss she had cobbled up based on her AD&D games with Flip back on Earth even if she¡¯d had to revert to using a monster core to keep the silly thing viable. So Tentacles a named monster would lord it over her new diversion. Poor Tentacles wasn¡¯t as bad ass as a Mind Flayer but he came close using magic spells and abilities instead of psionics.

    Then she indulged in a series of back and forth with Ralpindi and gained his reluctant acceptance to her plans, she had to cash in two favours but felt it was worth it.

    Next she pestered Andy and happily cashed in two of his favours on the same deal.

    Sandrinna was somewhat harder to convince until she had a complete change of heart for some reason. Mary was unsure of the reason and not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth cancelled two favours for her cooperation.

    ¡®Three locations, mmm, better expand that little mock dungeon and boost Tentacles an¡¯ move him down a bit. Wonder what else...¡¯

    ? Hey Trish! Why didn¡¯t you tell me about changing Cats to Felidae. An¡¯ that sabre tooth cat is cool! ?

    ¡®Mmm but it still needs a few tweaks... There!¡¯

    ¡°What are you talking about Mary? What are Feli... Oh dear! I think your other self chose that and Bluey...¡±

    Trish looked over the new options, ¡°Oh this will be a big help.¡± She muttered as she dived back into planning the new dungeon.

    * * *

    Drina was standing at the bow of Wave Skimmer with Joy and Pounce as had become her custom relishing the occasional bursts of spray sent up by the knife sharp bow of the schooner.

    Her parents were watching the surfaced sea wyvern that was having no difficulty keeping up with Wave Skimmer and listening as Captain Goodfellow talked with Robin and updated himself with the capabilities of the two monsters and their riders. It seemed that the sea wyverns could land on land and though slow and needing magical assistance to take off again they would still be formidable. Both Robin and Danny knew the necessary spells, so at a pinch Drina could be evacuated.

    That evening over dinner Rhondaa commented on the existence of the sea wyverns and asked her daughter if Mary had any more surprises.

    Drina grinned as she fed Pounce a titbit from her plate and replied with a giggle, ¡°Lots!¡±

    Rhondaa gave her daughter a flat disapproving look. Drina unperturbed fed Joy a titbit, tilted her head to one side and widened her eyes, ¡°mama Mother has lots of things going on an¡¯ I think more trips like this are in our future. An¡¯ you an¡¯ Danilus are all goin¡¯ to be very surprised at where we¡¯ll be goin¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Will you please stop talking like Mary.¡±

    ¡°Guess it¡¯s catchin¡¯ with her bein¡¯ constantly at the back of my mind.¡± Explained Drina spreading her hands.

    ¡°Mary is still with you now despite us being so far from her domain?¡±

    * * *

    Seercove had never seen anything like it. First Arbol¡¯tar one of the priests that visited their village occasionally to hold services at their shrine had turned up with another priest from the temple at Garonmouth, they were escorted by two temple guardsmen and accompanied by a band of weird beastfolk, some strange tiny hairy guys as well as wolf, cat and badgers.

    Then that strange looking three masted ship arrived in their bay and instead of lowering boats to land the passengers the passengers all dove into the water and swam swiftly ashore. The experienced eyes of the fishermen noted the two huge monsters that had accompanied the strangely rigged matt black ship.

    They also recognised the flag, it was the same that Captain Tomcat¡¯s ship flew.

    Their visitors emerged from the open bay in an open defensive formation around a little sea elf girl. The girl in question looked about with interest and headed for the waiting priests.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Why uncle Zorglub, fancy meetin¡¯ you here, I see congratulations are in order. Things must be interestin¡¯ with you as a priest,¡± Drina greeted her honorary uncle.

    ¡°Drina, you¡¯ve grown.¡± Zorglub raised an eyebrow and smiled, ¡°so how do you like responsibility little Voice?¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Markus just lay in bed in a semiconscious state, he was running a high temperature and his blood pressure was elevated resulting in several nosebleeds. He was hooked up to several instruments and an intravenous drip.

    And off to East in Bavaria in a cave under Mount Untersberg where the Emperor Frederick was sleeping with his knights a small Erdm?nnlein or dwarf who had inadvertently intruded therein some centuries earlier woke to a blue screen and on his grunting a startled Ya found himself transferred to a spot under a bed of a man who was a dungeon.Alaric was not best pleased but he was grateful to be awake so he was inclined to aid his new companion Markus.

    First thing encourage the core to grow so that the excess soul stuff could be moved out of Markus¡¯ body and brain, but why in Hel¡¯s name was he forming it in his skull in the middle of his forehead. That ruby was going to look damn strange above his eyes.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    The neighbourhood was crawling with strangers, mostly male. Mary concluded it was only a matter of time before the authorities got round to obtaining search warrants, and a short time at that. So that left her with only a short time to distract them and get her people out from under.

    ¡®Hey me, what¡¯s needed to establish a dungeon?¡¯

    ¡®Sorry me I¡¯m busy at the moment, wait, just let me put Trish on, she¡¯s better at standard dungeons than me.¡¯

    ¡®¡¯K thanks me. Hiya Trish can you help?¡¯

    ¡®Um, Mary err this is weird I seem to have a link to you too. Dungeons, why do you want to know about them.¡¯

    ¡®I¡¯m plannin¡¯ to set one up to distract the local authorities, there¡¯s a park nearby an¡¯ I seem to have lots of pos¡¯ mobs.¡¯

    Trish grew excited; she was going to help with a real dungeon. She lost a bit of enthusiasm when she realised that this Mary had as much interest in residing at the end of a system of caves and tunnels as her Mary. But this would definitely be a real dungeon.

    So an hour later a tired Mary with a newly purchased and enchanted large synthetic sapphire in her pocket parked her Jeep in a lay-by at her local park and then made her way to the duck pond at its centre. There she sat on a bench and pretended to watch the pond as she worked under the eyes of a fascinated pixie.

    Two hours later she stretched to get the kinks out of her back, moved to the edge of the pond, scattered some breadcrumbs for the ducks as she surreptitiously dropped the sapphire in the small tunnel she had created. It slid, rolled down the slick ramp and vanished into the depths. She then returned to her Jeep and returned home leaving another expensive scrap of melted plastic behind in the lay-by.

    Behind her unnoticed a Pixie ventured down the barely pixie sized tunnel. Silversword eeled her way to the bottom of the dungeon for yes Silversword was somehow able to sense that this was indeed a nascent dungeon. She explored the four levels and could see how the dungeon girl intended to expand it, the only thing, no things she didn¡¯t understand was the empty soulstone sitting at the end of the dungeon where the dungeon¡¯s core should reside, and two, the dungeon girl smelled of the wild deeps, and this dungeon just didn¡¯t fit her.

    Back on Parthia Trish was busy planning and contacting the dungeons that owed Mary favours, each was offered the cancellation of at least one favour for the help with planning and ideas and possibly more if a particular monster should fit the two Marys¡¯ plans. She was however puzzled at Folding Deep¡¯s hysterical amusement at the thought of a dungeon on Hawaii.

    Mary got home just minutes before the police served the expected Search Warrant. She removed the hidden entrance she had used to take food to her ¡®folk and also part of the tunnel as she inspected the warrant and confirmed the cops were who they claimed. Then she stood back as they searched the house for the presence of dog men, or so the warrant read.

    As soon as the cops left she dropped into her armchair and re-established the entrance and removed the one in the von Hindersin¡¯s house.

    ¡®Hey Bluey I see I¡¯ve got a slot for dungeon monsters available, any chance of upgrading our Cats to family Felidae?¡¯

    ? ... Azurea! ... Felidae? Done! ?

    Mary blinked surprised in the acid way Bluey had said the blue haired cow¡¯s name and reached absently for on of the fossils her papa had given her a couple of days ago, all of a sudden it seemed to call to her. Her fingers tingled, this had come from a Smilodon, aka S. fatalis, slowly the big fellow seemed to form himself in her mind directly under the new, no the updated entry.

    Mary eyed the other fossils in the box and tossed three that she now sensed were just rocks, but that left another two... And once again the door bell sounded. Irritated she answered the door and was surprised to see Dr Cas with a man she didn¡¯t know.

    ¡°Afternoon Mary, I thought this was Ms Rowley¡¯s house?¡±

    ¡°Hi Cas, that¡¯s my mama she reverted to her maiden name after the divorce, please come in, you wanna coffee?¡±

    ¡°No thanks Mary, is it all right if we, that is the university searches your garden for frogs?¡±

    Mary opened and closed her mouth as her mind changed tracks, ¡°Yes, by all means I¡¯ll phone and let mama know but... Frogs?¡±

    ¡°Oh your neighbour has found several members of a totally unique species of frog and we are trying to find more and hopefully ensure they don¡¯t become extinct almost as soon as they were discovered.¡±

    Mary watched her mentor join a group of students and teachers as they spread out in her garden. She returned to flop down in her favourite armchair, she phoned her mama and left a message on her phone then turned her attention to a nagging itch at the back of her mind. It was the fairy, no something told her that the golden haired miniature be-winged lady was a pixie, and she was exploring the still unpopulated embryonic dungeon that she Mary had just created under the park.

    ¡®Hey Trish, got a moment, whatcha think?¡¯ asked Mary as she relayed the image up the link she shared with her other self¡¯s companion.

 Chapter 43

    Mary grinned, Ralpindi had come through, it was tricky but she was able to claim the small cave on the other side of the mountain from his Heaven¡¯s Belt dungeon and she¡¯d had to give him a fair amount of energy for him to stretch so far. She linked the cave to her mock dungeon with a portal and surprisingly it settled firmly with almost a hint of permanence. So... Next step even out the cave and turn into a mid sized square room with a pillared portico type entrance.

    A couple of hours to recover and make sure nothing needed her attention then repeat with Andy and his as yet unnamed dungeon. Andy surprised her, he placed her cave across the valley from his entrance.

    Another square room with a portal to her mock dungeon, the entrance this time had a classical Grecian look. On a whim Mary decorated it with the story of Leda and the Swan.

    It would seem Sandrinna was not happy with her current location so Mary found herself with the entirety of her original first floor and responsible for maintaining the well in the first cave.

    ? Trish! Help! ?

    ¡°What is it Mary?¡±

    ? Um... Sandrinna dumped her first level on me instead of just a cave... Now I have to do something first levelish with it as I seem to have been landed with her agreement with the local Adventurer¡¯s Guild. ?

    ¡°Mary, what are you up to now?¡±

    ? Creatin¡¯ a network of portals to allow us to access the rest of the world, see... ?

    Trisha examined the mock dungeon. ¡°Wow that¡¯s going to be a wicked second level.¡± She studied the other levels with horrified fascination, ¡°where did you get the idea for Tentacles, he¡¯s wicked. Mary, that dungeon is vicious in the extreme, you¡¯ll have to boost the treasure you give.¡±

    Mary mused over the ideas Trish had offered, expanded the dungeon considerably, boosted the temperature of the caves somewhat, added a high level of humidity, created a mix of mangrove jungle growing out of knee deep salt water and dry thick forests liberally inhabited with poisonous sea snakes, anacondas in the trees, several of her barracuda and archer fish and even one of her electric barracuda. The dry forests sported more snakes and several leopards and a sabre tooth tiger guarding the portal.

    When Trisha checked up on Mary¡¯s work next day she felt like tearing her hair out in frustration. ¡®Oh gods, if I don¡¯t keep an eye on her at all times... This is a lovely level but it¡¯s NOT suitable for a first level... At least the herbs will be very rare here but I¡¯ll still have to up the rewards...¡¯

    Then Trish contacted Arlene DuChan of Folding Deep as she was the most advanced dungeon she personally knew. She explained and in fact showed her Mary¡¯s attempt at a first level.

    Arlene snorted with amusement, ? That is a nice match for my seventh level, mind if I steal some ideas, and do you think your Mary would trade me those fish, the herbs and the mangroves? ?

    ¡°Seventh!¡±

    ? Don¡¯t worry Trisha, you did say the other levels were worse, so that should be fine, yes. ?

    ¡°I think you should be able trade for them, Mary might balk at the ¡®letric ¡®cuda but the rest is nothing special and She does want something from you.¡±

    ? What? ?

    ¡°A cave she can claim for a portal.¡±

    * * *

    Viscount Travanne was both flattered and intrigued when the delegation led by the Voice from the by now famous Blue Lagoon dungeon showed up on his doorstep. The arrival of the sea wyvern in his lake after he had granted permission was sobering.

    Talks proceeded well and resulted in his son and heir being summoned. Both of them found the information the dungeon had obtained about their island home worrying, both for what it displayed of Blue Lagoon¡¯s reach and abilities and for the ruin that stared them in the face if the short sighted idiots that had been backing the pirates should achieve their aims.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Steffi had just popped into the ladies rest room to freshen up and found her friend and colleague Solde looking in the mirror with tears running down her face. She put an arm around her shoulder for comfort.

    ¡°What¡¯s up Solde?¡±

    ¡°Nothing really Steffi, it... it¡¯s just that I¡¯m seeing the blue screens.¡±

    ¡°But... can I help in some way?¡±

    Solde gave her a watery smile, ¡°no Steffi, there¡¯s nothing you can do, I¡¯ve been following things on the gamer blogs, many of those that attended HawaiiCon have shared their experiences and I have been reading the information the... the System has on other races.¡± She waved a hand at the mirror, ¡°I¡¯m just saying goodbye.¡±

    ¡°Solde what are you saying? Goodbye... you can¡¯t possibly mean...¡±

    ¡°No Steffi, goodbye to being human, I can live so much longer as an elf.¡± Then she started to lift her hand only to have her friend Steffi grab it.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Steffi, I¡¯ll be fine and I don¡¯t need to touch the screen, several of the guys from the con mention that all you have to do is focus on the choice you want and think or say the word. Apparently some girl was the first to figure that out,¡± Sold smiled a bit tremulously, ¡°girl power yes?¡±

    Steffi hugged her friend impetuously, ¡°Solde don¡¯t do this, its just hallucinations. Please come with me and we can see Dr Eynatten.¡±

    Solde focused on her choice and mentally said ¡®Yes!¡¯ then she focused on the classes on offer and though tempted by Healer chose Mage hoping the reports she had read had been true. There, there was the option for a healing spell as reported. So Healing Spell and for her second ¨C Sleep!

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter Steffi, I¡¯ve chosen,¡± (sniff), ¡°basic common o garden elf, not high or sea, and certainly not the vegetarian variety that seems to have been added under protest for our world,¡± (sniff), ¡°Mage with two spells for now, minor heal and sleep.¡±

    And Solde hugged her friend back with just a hint of desperation.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary entertained herself with enchanting a small fridge magnet with the spell of protection against lightning attacks as she gazed out of the front window of her house at the TV truck parked under the tree on the other side of the road. The spell worked by disrupting the flow of electricity, she grinned as she polished the magnet clean of potential fingerprints. She left the house by the back door and handed it to her new friend Silversword as she passed the bushes at the side of her property. Silversword departed with a giggle.

    Mary headed for her jeep and paused as one of the bored cops that was keeping watch over her house approached.

    ¡°Hi Mary, if you still want to visit Meier you can. He said he¡¯d like to see you too.¡±

    ¡°¡¯K, I¡¯ll be on my way then... Hey what¡¯s up with those idiots?¡±

    The police officer looked round and stared at the antics of the TV crew as their electrical equipment died. He started to walk over to see if he could help.

    Mary hopped in her jeep and headed for school. She didn¡¯t get there as there seemed to be a riot ongoing. So she phoned in and was advised to take the day off.

    * * *

    Mary walked down the corridor and looked into the private room containing officer Meier. A much larger and unscarred officer Meier with two functional eyes. Mary ended up by meeting his wife and son and several other relatives and friends.

    It was nearly two hours later that she said her farewells and prepared to leave when Frank Meier said. ¡°Thanks girl, glad I didn¡¯t become an ogre or some kind of lizard, hope to see you again.¡±

    Mary stopped in the door and looked over her shoulder, ¡°Yeah, sorry I wasn¡¯t able to do more.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be a stranger girl, you¡¯ve got our number now, please come to the party on Saturday.¡±

    Mary just looked at him for a long moment, gave a jerky nod and left.

    Her favourite beach was crowded with a bunch of agitated morons in inappropriate attire so she left frustrated and ended up parked on a windswept cliff top beauty spot.

    So back to the park and the bench overlooking the duck pond. It took time and effort but she was able to open up and mould the first two levels to Trisha¡¯s satisfaction. Mary added muted illumination giving the caves, chambers and passages a twilight look. Then she added vegetation stealing the templates from the park around her and modifying them to flourish in constant twilight. She fingered the pineapple in the shopping bag sitting on the bench by her side and added those.

    ¡®Now if I could only make ¡®em explode like the ones on Piers Anthony¡¯s Xanth.¡¯

    Mary walked down to the top of her road and looked down. There was another crowd in front of her house. So Mary took her jeep round to Liz¡¯s and knocked on her door. One coffee and a few cookies later her Jeep was sitting next to Liz¡¯s Ford in her garage and she had hopped over the backyard fence and was home.

    She entered through the kitchen and found her mother preparing a pot roast.

    ¡°Hi mama how was your day, need any help? School was out ¡®cause of rioters so I went to see Mr Meier and wanderin¡¯ round. Liz offered me a space in her garage for the time bein¡¯.¡±

    ¡°No fishing, please peel the spuds dear.¡±

    ¡°Nope, beach is full of lunatics.¡±

    Mary grabbed a knife and started peeling. ¡°So what¡¯s goin¡¯ on out front?¡±

    Mary¡¯s mother laughed, ¡°That lot¡¯s well behaved, they want to save the frogs. Greg¡¯s kind of upset.¡±

 Chapter 44

    Trish and Fleur, Arlene¡¯s sprite got together and organised their dungeons, a somewhat bemused Mary was soon talking to Arlene DuChan of Folding Deep. The two struck sparks of each other but on the whole got along well. Arlene got her plants and creatures and was able to get rid of one favour. Mary got another cavern to play with a two kilometres from the dungeon Folding Deep¡¯s front entrance and a scant half-kilometre from the West Gate of the city of Folding Deep.

    Mary thought about it then decided to ignore the problem and created another square room with portal flanked with pictures of Lewis Carroll¡¯s Mock Turtle. Then she added that art to the two that lacked it.

    That night she despatched a mixed group of ¡®folk with full purses to explore the town and pretend to be adventurers, also a team of man-rats and a few meerkat and badger folk to aid with the digging.

    * * *

    Viscount Travanne had wanted to know how Mary had known where to find him as it was rare that he visited his estates near Garonmouth but Drina merely grinned at him. Finally she admitted that Mary had agents that kept an eye on the ports of Drakoton and Garonmouth.

    Despite everything an arrangement was concluded between Viscount Travanne and Mary Silvestre and agreed to by his son Baron Norvaan. Protocols were established for sharing data and ideas and after a feast to which most of the local aristocracy was invited the Voice departed with her guard taking Baron Norvaan with her.

    The Wave Skimmer made excellent time back to the islands and after dropping of the Baron and his household at another fishing village near his home proceeded to leave most of Drinna¡¯s escort at the hidden harbour built by the badger folk for Steve and his man-rats so as to be available if the plotters attacked the Temple of Ocidon in the city.

    * * *

    The private army of the recently installed Baron Alkadees marched proudly into Drakoton from the North and headed for the docks. Marching to their rear came the army of Faruuz the current chief magistrate of the town. From the west came the forces of Baron Ferr Galdon and Chief Justice Stra¡¯gard. From the West came the army of Tinicus the Merchant and Far¡¯diva the banker.

    As soon as she heard Serrenica sent a runner to the Harbour to warn her son in law Captain Haardock of the Blue Star.

    The Blue Star and the Silver Swan were both just leaving harbour when the men of Baron Alkadees and magistrate Faruuz arrived and started boarding all the ships currently docked or anchored in the harbour.

    * * *

    Steve grinned savagely at his subordinates, ¡°It¡¯s time! Daniel get yourself to the temple and let Captain Haz¡¯afsad know what we suspect and that he has reinforcements if he wants them. And even if he doesn¡¯t but you don¡¯t have to tell him that. Sally, get the badgers to finish the tunnel to that little house near the temple and lead the wolves and cats there. Lucretia can you get our acquisition teams ready to go, lets empty those treasuries and strongboxes.¡±

    ¡°What about Harr¡¯kardos, do I include him? We know he has over fifty armed pirates or ex-pirated in his mansion along with close on twenty guards,¡± asked Lucretia.

    ¡°I suspect those are the ones destined to attack the Temple so set it up as well. Then we have to send one of our catamarans with news, prepare a second to sail when we have more.¡±

    The room emptied quickly as a lot of happy and excited man-rats went off to wreak havoc on their enemies.

    * * *

    The docks were filled with unhappy people, probably the unhappiest were the captains and crews of the eight impressed merchant ships especially as their cargo was being unloaded onto the docks willy-nilly and their holds were being loaded with ballast and soldiers. To these ships a further four were added. These had been chartered so their crews were content enough.

    The stevedores had been press-ganged and were being made to work long hours for a paltry fixed fee, more unhappy campers. The local merchants, whether or not they had lost ships could see trade departing to other pastures when news of this folly got out.

    Later two lean fast looking brigantines arrived towing a large clumsy double-hulled flat-topped barge.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    The fleet sailed on the following day¡¯s morning tide; Baron Alkadees was installed on the largest of the chartered ships as the commander of the expedition while the barge to the entertainment of the locals was carrying a wyvern and two griffins.

    The man-rats dispatched another of their catamarans with an update of the forces Blue Lagoon was to face.

    * * *

    The ruling council of the City State of Folding Deep was meeting with the leadership of the local Adventurer¡¯s Guild. The Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the de facto ruler of the city was in full flow.

    ¡°... so why are you telling me that we have another dungeon on our hands, the original one is bad enough as it¡¯s getting too strong... now we have a new one outside the West Gate and you can¡¯t tell me anything except that access is via portal... and that according to the diviners the ridiculous looking monster drawn flanking said portal is a mock turtle... whatever that might be...¡±

    ¡°Please Mr Secretary, give us time to send one of our more powerful teams to check it out... the team you forced us to use has not returned.¡±

    ¡°Yes... yes, maybe you should just get rid of it. Meanwhile the city will set up defences around it to collect the appropriate taxes.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Durati had drawn the short straw and he was now escorting the latest batch of new recruits on their first delve instead of heading off with friends to challenge Celestial Peaks. Their guild house tended to get a lot of newbies as the weak unnamed goblin dungeon was ideally suited to rank beginners. This was a common if unwelcome task.

    This time Durati and the youngsters he was mentoring received a surprise; the valley now contained two entrances, the new one being much fancier than the original.

    Durati decided to leave the new entrance for later and organised his gaggle of hopefuls into two large parties and led the first lot into the dungeon. The dungeon was still not strong but it had improved considerably. The more complex setup of caverns and passages together with the roving patrols forced his newbies to withdraw after completing the first level.

    After giving the dungeon a day to recover he led in his second group. The roving patrols gave this lot, and Durati a few surprises. The rear attack when they were engaged to the front almost led to disaster, and did lead to their withdrawal.

    The second entrance led to an artistically decorated room featuring the typical doings of one of the baser gods and a portal flanked by carvings of a truly silly looking monster, a turtle¡¯s body with Normal seeming flippers in front, but with the head, rear legs and tail of a calf.

    The portal itself led to a hot and humid cavern with sizable pools of water and condensation dripping from walls and ceiling. Then several large and aggressive crabs climbed out of the pools while some fish came to the surface and spat bolts of poisoned water at them.

    Durati only just managed to get his newbies out alive.

    The adventurers remained in the valley for the full week they had planned and managed to clear the second level of the goblin dungeon and penetrated the third but found themselves unable to pass the jackal man hybrid monster.

    Durati reported the marked improvements to the goblin dungeon and the presence of the dangerous new portal dungeon. He shared the bonus for the discovery of a new dungeon with his trainees, much to their joy.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    School was out again, the rioters, including many pupils were making things impossible once again.

    Mary perused her box of fossils and pocketed the one labelled as being found in Montana. She then left via the back door and walked to the park. Once settled on her bench she looked round and for the first time truly recognised what she was seeing, mothers and kids, people taking the air and even some youngsters sunbathing. Not the place for the entrance of a dungeon. On the far side of the park however, amongst the shady bush lined paths where, thanks to that idiot Jinny she knew some drugs dealers plied their trade...

    So Mary reconfigured the first level of her decoy dungeon. Then with Trish¡¯s help she finished off the third and fourth levels as far as rooms, caverns and vegetation were concerned.

    That afternoon after having gone home for lunch and having a chat with Greg about his frogs that thanks to the demonstrators had all been relocated for safety. Then Mary returned to the park and she and Trish settled in to summoning inhabitants for the dungeon.

    As Mary returned home at the end of the day everything was ready for the opening. She really hoped her little surprise would intrigue the naturalists, bones were much easier to read and she now had some use for all that rubbish her father kept sending her as souvenirs of his travels.

    She decided to return home normally as her road seemed to be finally clear. She stopped by the bored cops sitting in their car to say hi. They regaled her with the tale of how several news vans had had mysterious breakdowns over the past day or two.

    Once home she allowed her mind to range out along her elongated domain as she studied the fossil in her pocket. Something big and with feathers, not huge but bigger than a man. Then she sensed something in the park... ¡®Yeah, now¡¯s just the right time!¡¯

    * * *

    Officer Rachel Rourke was on her first patrol along with Mat Yamaoka when they spotted what looked like a drug sale in the park. Mat challenged the suspect but he ran down a path, they chased him but stopped when they saw their suspect swallowed by the earth.

    They approached the new sinkhole cautiously and heard screams and snarling. The screaming didn¡¯t last long and the sides of the hole didn¡¯t look very secure. The hole seemed to be some four or five meters deep and they could occasionally see some creatures in the shadows.

    They called the incident in and did their best to keep the local curiosity seekers from falling in the hole.

    Emergency services were soon on the scene and the first people to descend into the hole had to shoot to preserve their lives. A bagged partially devoured corpse was removed from the hole together with the bodies of two vaguely doglike creatures. These were later identified as Thylacine or Tasmanian Wolves.

 Chapter 45

    Stonebrow watched the tiny twin hulled sailing boat approach the docking tower during his watch. The sails came down and one of the crew of tiny humanoids used a speaking trumpet.

    ¡°Morning New Town, the pirates are on their way!¡±

    Then the little guy joined his crew and the triangular sailed boat turned to the south and was soon speeding away.

    Stonebrow grumbled to himself but pulled the cord to ring the signal bell. Half an hour later he did so again.

    Down below in the watch room Havenot the unwary slept on.

    Mairee silkybeard stormed into the watch room after the third time the bell sounded. ¡°What the hell are you doing you useless shale headed moron, why do I have to be woken three times by that hellish contraption you lot call a bell?¡± she shrieked.

    Several dwarves gathered for the show, Mairee was entertaining if you weren¡¯t the object of her ire.

    The hulabaloo went on for some time until once again the signal bell rang. Havenot heaved himself to his feet and stumped out of the room. ¡°Gotta go see what old Stonebrow wants.¡±

    ¡°Only now, that¡¯s the fourth time that thing¡¯s rung and only now you have to see what Stonebrow thinks needs telling?¡± Mairee screeched in ire just as the alarm bells started to ring.

    Tankard Strongarm who had been leaning against a wall in the back of the crowd enjoying the show had jerked upright at Mairee¡¯s last statement and started dashing up the dock tower¡¯s stairs when the alarm sounded.

    Tankard Strongarm puffed his way onto the dock tower and stopped on seeing Stonebrow lying on the deck. He heard a chuckle behind his back, he spun round and saw a mage standing at the side of a griffin, then he knew nothing as darkness claimed him.

    The mage maintained his position as one of the sleek privateer ships docked and its augmented crew spilled out and poured through the open gate at the top of the docking tower. Down below confusion reigned as the dwarves awaited the return of Tankard. Havenot tired of listening to Mairee left the tower and headed for the tavern.

    The thunder of feet on the stairs caused some of the warier amongst the dwarves to retreat to the entrance to their under-mountain dwelling just as the privateers burst into the room with bared blades and started killing all those present. A handful of the more cautious amongst the dwarves were able to flee and slam the doors behind them.

    The Privateers barricaded the door to the caverns, looted the bodies of their water breathing and moving enchanted items before moving out to grab hostages in the underwater settlement in what was obviously a meticulously planned operation as they knew who to target and where to find them in the early morning hours.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Captain Hackam the bloody handed had a third of his men hold their hostages with knives at their throats, clerics and mages had been fitted with mage masks as he addressed the inhabitants of New Town.

    ¡°Good adventurers, have no fear, just carry out the task decreed by the munificent Baron Ferr Galdon and all will be well. All the good Baron is asking is that you escort the fleet commanded by Baron Alkadees and protect it from attacks launched from the deeps.¡±

    Captain Hackam smirked, ¡°Once you have left with the fleet we will take your loved ones into the dwarves tower where they will join the dwarves and when you return from this patriotic task you will be suitably rewarded by the Baron and be able to release your loved ones.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Mary was getting irked, she was back in the police interrogation room with her lawyer, the cops, most apologetically it must be admitted had hinted that the charges of excessive force dreamt up by the state prosecutor would go away if she cooperated with the feds. In the first place they apparently wanted her to take a full medical and then... well they didn¡¯t know what then.

    Mary was currently resting, observing and mining Bluey for whatever she could as her lawyer negotiated. She had come to the conclusion that Flip didn¡¯t know his lawyers as this individual while pleasant seemed somewhat lacking.

    Blue screens flashed passed with information on enchanting, dungeons, domains, companions, soul gems, beast cores amongst innumerable one simply stating ¡°information not yet available¡± or other similar messages.

    The two annoyances behind the two way mirror were particularly annoying and she tried everyway she could think of to read them. Her task got much easier when they started jabbing the air infront of their faces. Mary managed to keep a straight face with difficulty.

    Finally she agreed to the medical in return for a signed statement exempting her from prosecution for excessive force. She gave her lawyer a dubious look and determined to seek another more competent lawyer.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Rachel Rourke and Mat Yamaoka were feeling frustrated, thanks to being the ones to have discovered the sinkhole they were pulling more than their fair share of guard duty while it was fenced off and the undergrowth cleared from around it. A metal staircase protected by a steel cage was installed leading down into the hole and there was talk of a lift.

    Some guys had gone down with tranquilizer guns and fetched up two more of those Tasmanian thingamabobs and now there were these bored looking characters from the Australian Consulate. Amazing how they switched from boredom to enthusiastic interest when the press showed.

    * * *

    ¡°So what exactly do we have under that park, and how come it¡¯s managed to kill one of my guys?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know, the damn thing doesn¡¯t make any sense at all, we have a series of caves that seem to be dimly illuminated with abundant vegetation, some of it hostile, that¡¯s what got George, a damn vampiric liana grabbed him. Then there¡¯s the fauna and that is all aggressively hostile.¡±

    ¡°What about those Tasmanian Tigers?¡±

    ¡°The first two that we captured are doing well at the zoo, as is the second pair. The Australians are interested in acquiring them. They seem to exist in the first two or three caves and the caves seem capable of recreating them if we withdraw overnight.¡±

    ¡°You mean like those dungeon things in those stupid RPGs my kids are constantly playing.¡±

    ¡°Those games are... Well maybe? We certainly have no explanation as to what is going on down there anyway. Nothing down there makes sense.¡±

 Chapter 46

    Mary felt the need to visit the temple, her ally wanted a meeting. So she manifested her human avatar in the lagoon and climbed the steps into the temple and nodded respectfully to the statue of her ally behind the altar.

    She settled with a grin on the comfortable chair that appeared at the side of the statue of Ocidon.

    ? Mary the time has come to expel Vortexius Blackbeard from my seas, for now he¡¯s welcome to the cutthroats, bandits and thieves but the pirates will have no further place on my oceans and seas. ?

    Danilus Oakborn and his priests arrived next two carrying an open sedan chair with Altor Seaswept. Then Ocidon summoned and all his High Priests were present in spirit.

    The holy Anchor of Ocidon, both of them were unable to tear their eyes away from the sight, for where the other priests present could only see a statue they could see their God standing proudly before them.

    ? The time has come to eject that foul stain that is Vortexius Blackbeard from our oceans and seas for he has overextended himself and laid himself open to censure. His forces are at this moment invading one of my temples. Gather my forces and prepare to strike. As soon as you receive reinforcements via the gates it will be time. Raze his temples. Smite his followers. Chase them from our waters. ?

    ¡°Reinforcements, were an¡¯ how am I to do that?¡± enquired Mary with a sideways look at Ocidon.

    ? Well my dear, that little army you were planning to use against the pirate coast would do nicely. And I will provide the necessary gates, just get them here. ?

    Mary chuckled, ¡°¡¯K. They¡¯re on their way, should start arriving in an hour or so. Thought an ally merited somethin¡¯ more than orders.¡±

    ? But it¡¯s to eliminate the scourge of piracy. ?

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why I agreed.¡±

    * * *

    Pete was hiding with Hanna and Joey near the iron tower as they watched happenings in New Town. They were all of them more than a bit irritated, they knew that the rat boys had warned the dwarves and thus by extension the settlement of the invasion over two hours ago and still the pirates had managed to achieve a complete surprise.

    As for the pirate¡¯s assurances, hah! They could still smell the blood from the pirates had used the tower¡¯s water locks to access the town. Dealt with as the dwarves were meant killed after the pirates had some fun.

    They watched as the cowed adventurers swam off with a sizable escort, then the Pirate Captain gathered the majority of his men and grabbing a handful of the prettier women re-entered the tower. They heard him order the remaining guards to wait half an hour and then to take the hostages into the tower. The parting comments, ¡°have fun¡± and ¡°you have an hour¡± really annoyed Pete. A few of those hostages were friends. He started preparing his magic. Sensing their father gathering his magic Hanna and Joey did likewise.

    Pete waited five minutes, then seeing that the pirates still present were having fun tormenting the hostages with what was going to happen to them delayed a bit longer. Finally he signalled, thirty seconds.

    The remaining pirates didn¡¯t really stand a chance, one veteran ranked mage backed by two accomplished Journeyman mages against the dregs of the pirate crew.

    Pete was soon removing the mage mask from Massina while Joey did the same to Drixia.

    ¡°So Pete why didn¡¯t you intervene earlier?¡± asked Massina already knowing the answer but feeling the need to vent her frustration.

    ¡°There were too many, and I didn¡¯t want to risk my kids. By the way, this is Hanna and this is Joey.¡±

    Massina and two others took of after their men to advise them of the changed circumstances and they took Joey with them as proof, though Joey did state that he wouldn¡¯t enter Mary¡¯s dungeon.

    Drixia meanwhile was looking at the tower with angry eyes, ¡°do you think we could get to the top first and ambush them?¡±

    ¡°Well they have to climb the stairs and they will probably be looting.¡±

    Pete didn¡¯t think this a particularly good idea but he tagged along, at least he wouldn¡¯t have to leave the sea.

    The Pirate¡¯s ship was virtually unguarded and the few crew left on board were somewhat the worse for drink so the ladies had an easy capture. They showed the pirates no mercy. The fight for the tower however was vicious and Pete and Hanna had to cast may healing spells. They managed to free two of the remaining hostages and pen the pirates in the tower.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Realizing that they couldn¡¯t get in and the other hostages were dead the ladies sent a team to wreck the water lock at the foot of the tower and flooded it. Unfortunately for them they forgot the pirates were all equipped with at the very least water breathing enchanted items.

    At least now the team coming from below had lots of places to hide especially Pete and Hanna.

    The fight was long and blood and by no means one sided, the pirates knowing they could expect no mercy fought like cornered rats. In the end it was the magic of the two octopi that allowed the ladies to carry the day.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Mary walked out of the cop shop and dismissed her lawyer not wanting to have to squeeze herself into his European status symbol and to be honest quite tired of his company. She watched him depart still toying with the pen she had used to sign the documents that she had been presented with. Well not the two that had miraculously appeared and hadn¡¯t been covered by the agreement.

    She turned and walked away in the direction of downtown. Considering the noises she activated the protection enchantment on the ring. ¡®Guess I¡¯m gonna be a real pain.¡¯ She grinned with genuine humour and activated the enchantment she had recently placed on the pen. ¡®Yeah, that¡¯s it, reclaim all your ink, oh yeah, it¡¯s workin¡¯ an¡¯ those beeps are gonna have a load of unsigned papers on their hands, wonder when they¡¯ll discover that?¡¯

    She strode on, hopped on a bus and left it before she wanted due to disturbances ahead. She resumed walking doing like others and skirted the disturbance. When one of the lunatics threatened her with a baseball bat she took it from him and broke it on his leg then tossed the handle into her storage device.

    She arrived at the address she sought somewhat later than she had intended and after presenting herself at the building¡¯s reception she was in the lift and then in the reception of Daniels, Silverberg and Gough attorneys at law.

    She was lucky, there had been various clients who had cancelled and rescheduled their appointments so she got seen by one of the firms lawyers. When she produced the advance they asked in cash apparently out of thin air the lawyer who had seen her left briefly and returned with another. They presented Mary with a provisional contract to take the case and represent her but they insisted that they would need to speak with her parents and obtain their signature.

    Mary just placed all the papers in her storage device. She grinned at their faces and dug out her first and no longer used successful attempt at enchanting one, it only had four slots. She passed it over and explained how it worked.

    ¡°Look, do you handle copyright, or can you recommend a good, flexible copyright lawyer to get that little effort of mine protected. I can teach someone with the necessary abilities how to make ¡®em. If you want why don¡¯t you hold onto that until my next visit. Then if you¡¯re still interested take what you think it¡¯s worth of my fee an¡¯ keep it. I¡¯m sure you can put together somethin¡¯ to keep both of us safe if you wanna test it.¡±

    ¡°I suggest you work out how to set up somethin¡¯ to detect enchanted items ¡®cause someone could stuff an uzi in that an¡¯ walk right past any metal an¡¯ explosives detectors you could find.¡±

    Needless to say Mary stayed somewhat longer than she had anticipated but she did get paid.

    * * *

    It took her a bit over two hours to get home and then something stole her decoy. She drew in a deep breath and reached out. She found that a dungeon had moved into her soulstone. The little so and so had appropriated all her monsters and plants. She figured he could have it but she was keeping her wolves and badger ¡®folk. Without further ado she forced her domain back into the secret passages around the chambers and reclaimed her ¡®folk and directed them down the tunnel and home. She withdrew her domain and paused as the intruder came after her. She readied herself to clash with the intruder but he recoiled when he perceived her and withdrew from the passage.

    Aster waiting for a minute or so Mary collapsed the tunnel and withdrew her domain with relief. She would have to see about setting up something at the foot of the cliffs.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Dr Charles Macquarie from the Smithsonian was having to force himself to work. He was an old man after all and he had been feeling down for nearly a year now. But this anomaly was fascinating and thankfully the weather in Hawaii was far more pleasant than that in Washington DC.

    First he had been surprised by the Thylacine, he supposed it was barely possible that some examples might have survived somewhere but now there were these tiny little fellows in the cage on his table, he was almost certain that these swift omnivores were examples of Fruitadens haagarorum, and that was just flatly impossible.

    On Diavlo ANS 12 committed suicide when his wisp died from the heat and lack of oxygen in the air. Fraade had been the last being in his dungeon to die after the raging worldwide fires and overwhelming heat had finally exhausted the oxygen in the atmosphere. As his core shattered he felt himself jerked across universes and merged with himself.

    His arrival exceeded the capacity of his aged body to remain working and he died of a massive stroke which threw his/their merged soul out of his/their dying body. Dr Macquarie/ANS 12 found himself in a curious semi abandoned dungeon and he, yes he found himself drawn to the soulstone, an empty soulstone eminently suited to be a core at the focal point of this curious dungeon.

    The lost soul settled into its new home with a sigh of relief. Some hours were spent merging their experiences and exploring the caves and chambers of their new body, the part of Macquarie that had been ANS 12 was astounded at the sheer abundance of life and the apparent lack of a guiding principal when it came to the monsters. The scientist was fascinated by the pair of Smilodon fatalis that were making their home in the room that contained the sapphire that was now his body.

    Then Macquarie was startled when something reached into the outer layer of his body, pushed him out of the outer corridors and released, no stole five beastmen from him and sent them fleeing down a long corridor. He reached out with anger and recoiled with fear when he met the other dungeon.

    Macquarie recognised the domain of the dungeon, apparently he was the thief and the other dungeon was only recovering the monsters she... She? Yes she wanted to keep. Still the way she¡¯d done it was a bit arrogant and high handed. The tunnel leading away from his dungeon closed up and the other dungeon¡¯s domain withdrew.

 Chapter 47

    The holy Anchor of Ocidon, Fiorino Stormwave woke in his office and immediately moved through his High Temple giving orders right and left as he headed to the vault situated under the altar. He opened the well hidden door and entered. Trembling he lifted the sheet and looked at the painting below. He gulped and lowered the sheet again. Yes it was as he remembered. Praise Ocidon!

    Locking the vault once again he hurried to ensure that everything would be ready for the second blow in the war of the gods. It had to be strong and decisive.

    Goran the wily, General of Ocidon¡¯s guard was grinning fiercely, joy burning in his breast. It would seem the time was now he would be alive to see the start of the war of the gods. The High Temple of Vortexius Blackbeard would be difficult but he was sure his forces could crack it. He was only worried that his forces would be too weak to defend the temple afterward.

    * * *

    Belatrix Anchor of the Deep woke in front of the altar of his temple and hurried to check that painting in the temple¡¯s secret vault. It was, he had remembered right! Praise Ocidon! Then Belatrix too spat orders left and right and prepared his forces to move out.

    * * *

    Meanwhile in Drakoton Harr¡¯kardos the merchant and priest of Vortexius Blackbeard was leading his men through the streets while Lucretia¡¯s people looted his house bare of treasures.

    Certain of surprise Harr¡¯kardos led his men, all seventy, in a charge into the temple of Ocidon. Captain Haz¡¯asfad having been forewarned was ready but his forces were inadequate and he was slowly forced back as the priest of Vortexius used his magic to aid his men.

    It all fell apart for Harr¡¯kardos when Captain Hunter led his thirty two marines into the back of his little army while Captain Fisher blocked any chance of escape with her people.

    Si¡¯Tran the high priest was allowed a visit to Ocidon¡¯s throne room where he noted one change then he woke to fling himself sitting in one of the pews of his inner sanctum and the sounds of fighting.

    Captain Haz¡¯afsad personally removed Harr¡¯kardos¡¯ head from his shoulders and found himself in a quandary. The intruders were fellow worshipers but they were an organised armed band owing loyalty to another power. A power allied to his god, but...

    Then High Priest Si¡¯Tran shocked him and with his words of welcome. What he said let him and all who heard that the prophesised war of the gods had started and that they had fought in its first skirmish.

    * * *

    Robin and Danny with another four of their siblings were ducking in and out of the low lying clouds as they overflew the pirate fleet. Then what they had been awaiting occurred, the pirate¡¯s air force took to the air and flew towards the islands. Mother had been right they stayed close to the ocean, flying barely high enough to be out of range of a heavy crossbow.

    They waited until they were out of sight of the fleet then following Mother¡¯s orders they put themselves between the sun and the flying mages and dived down out of the sun, their best offensive spells ready to cast and their sea wyverns horns sparking and glowing with their accumulated charge.

    They attacked in pairs, three sets of two wyverns one following the other, each pair targeting one mage and his steed.

    The only survivor of the first pass was the wyvern born mage and both were hurt, the wyvern had lost altitude and was barely skimming the surface when one of Mother¡¯s giant sea snakes struck flashing from under the surface, its fangs cutting through the wyvern¡¯s scales as if they didn¡¯t exist.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    All that remained was the empty ocean.

    * * *

    Mary lounged in her chair and smiled and shared a few words with her ¡®folk as they passed and stepped through Ocidon¡¯s gates to his scattered temples, sometimes only four but often more. The largest contingent went to the High Temple in Ocean¡¯s Glory. She noted with interest that most of her experimental lasers went there.

    She had a sudden thought and grinned crookedly and signalled to Captain Robin Goodfellow to stay behind with his ¡®folk. Robin who had been looking forward to action somewhat reluctantly moved to stand behind Mary.

    ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry Robin, you¡¯ll have your fun but I intend to send you and a few other ¡®folk to burn that beep¡¯s shrine in the city state of Folding Deep, make sure your laser¡¯s charged.¡±

    Captain Goodfellow grinned, relieved, ¡°you can count on us Mother.¡±

    ? They will need one of my priests to make it official, Faaron how would you like to accompany the nice tigers? ?

    Faaron who had been watching the proceedings glumly while rubbing his much broken nose brightened up and eagerly volunteered to accompany the ¡®nice tigers¡¯ as he scurried to join Captain Goodfellow¡¯s squad.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    The vast space seemed to carpeted with clouds while the walls and ceiling were indeterminate but luminous, lounging on a grey low cloud was Mirabelarque current Chairbeing of the New Gods, on xyrs right sitting in an armchair made of snow and brushing icicles out of his long white beard was the Frost King God of Winter and the Northern and Southern Ice Fields. Also present were Azurea, Delminia, Vortexius Blackbeard, Feltax and Creevar.

    ¡°We are here to mourn the passing of our colleague Dragoor Magma Heart, god of Summer and Volcanoes who was foully slain by the gods of Diavlo for his unfortunate miscalculation while holding the post of chief god of that unfortunate world.¡±

    ¡°Well we don¡¯t have to avenge him as those gods died with their world,¡± said Vortexius.

    ¡°Yes indeed. But Frost King you have to do something, Parthia is following the path of Fragatta. We, none of us could remain here if Parthia becomes another iceball from pole to pole,¡± grumbled Azurea.

    ¡°Correct, and if we bugger up another world like we did Fragatta and Diavlo the High Gods are bound to take notice and we¡¯ll all be fucked,¡± stated Delminia goddess of Pleasure and Lust.

    ¡°Well I just think I¡¯ll follow Azurea¡¯s example and grab a few beings who specialise in weather and climate change and plant them around the poles but I won¡¯t wipe their memories,¡± said Frost King.

    ¡°Good luck that Frost,¡± said Azurea with a nasty grin as she recalled with a shudder the memory of that God that had been waking as she escaped with her loot and had led to all that nervous giggling.

    ¡°What about Tarifax and Ambuila, are Azurea¡¯s dungeons doing us any good there?¡± asked Feltax.

    ¡°They seem to be doing some good on Ambuila, Tarifax seems to be degenerating into a hell of never ending swamps. Life might be difficult but its not in danger of extinction.¡± Said Mirabelarque.

    ¡°And just what are you up to Creevar? Trying to mend bridges with the Old Gods, are you planning to jump ship?¡± demanded Azurea.

    ¡°Just trying to survive sister dear,¡± smirked Creevar.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    The death of a massive stroke of Dr Charles Macquarie from the Smithsonian institute whilst working on the island of Maui was on the morning news. According to the news presenter he had been studying some tiny dinosaurs.

    ¡°Oh beep, what idiot gave that to the press, I wanted the naturalists to go potty not the mob!¡± exclaimed Mary to herself as she made scrambled eggs for breakfast.

    ¡°What was that dear, and what did you have to do with those dinosaurs Mary Jane Silvestre?¡± asked her mother.

    ¡°Oh beep!¡±

    ¡°And why are you always saying beep, I admit it¡¯s nicer than before but it is odd?¡±

    Mary sat down across the breakfast table from her mother and placed a bowl with the eggs on the table between them, took a gulp of coffee and started, ¡°well it started on Fiji when I started seeing these blue screens and Bluey started communicatin¡¯ with me, then...¡±

    When she finished her explanation she waited nervously for her mother¡¯s reaction.

    ¡°Honestly Mary why haven¡¯t you said anything earlier, I wondered where those blue screens had come from. Your story is very far fetched but the creatures do exist though they haven¡¯t found the Deinonychus yet or the Saber Tooth. First thing though is to call in and take a day off, the riots are a good excuse, and then we are going to see that new lawyer you dug up and we¡¯re dragging your father along too.¡±

 Chapter 48

    Mary concentrated, the entrance for folding deep was irritating. She checked the mental map that her scouts had provided and came to a decision. She sank the room containing the gate and replaced the original chamber with a corridor that bent back on itself several times and ended in a spiral staircase leading to the entry chamber. She decorated the corridor with the story or King Midas and his golden touch in her now customary manga style.

    In the new entrance chamber she placed a hidden door hiding a three hundred meter corridor that ended just short of a deep pool the local river ran through. Then she created large hole and opened an entrance near the bottom of the pool. The hole quickly filled creating a small underground pool. Then almost in a throwaway gesture she added a few adapted plants to keep the water fresh and filtered.

    Robin managed to find one badger ¡®folk that had learned how to use Mary¡¯s latest marvel and recruited her and obtained a roll of copper wire covered in some rubbery substance, a small box with a plunger and a block of some grey flexible stuff. Crazy Lou the meerkat folk tagged along with the badger. That with his squad, the priest and himself made fourteen. Hopefully that should prove enough especially as Mother had other folk already there.

    Robin and his augmented squad stepped through the portal into the mock turtle dungeon then through the one leading to Folding Deep.

    Robin opened the secret door and Faaron closed it when everyone was in the corridor. At the other end they had a surprise, they found a woman floating on her back in the pool contemplating the dimly illuminated ceiling whilst a second was sitting on the edge combing her hair.

    ¡°Look sister, the dungeon folk have arrived.¡±

    There was some negotiation, mostly between the naiads and Mary after Robin and his squad had left via the underwater entrance. In return for a few more chambers, most completely flooded and a second concealed entrance the naiads were happy to defend their new home and allow Mary¡¯s people access.

    Robin and his folk were able to enter the city of Folding Deep easily, the presence of the dungeon in the city and now of the enigmatic one just outside meant that the guards were used to groups of strange people coming and going. They collected the modest toll for entering the city and the only delay was due to them checking the purity of the previously unencountered bits.

    They were easily able to make contact with their predecessors and Tony the leader of the rat-men confirmed that there was, not a shrine but a small and flourishing temple to Vortexius Blackbeard present in the slums.

    Captain Goodfellow spent the two days till the destined attack day making plans and coming to truly appreciate the ability of the man-rats when it came to ferreting out secrets.

    * * *

    By the time they caught up with her men Massina had made two decisions, first she was going to get that speed through water spell of Joey¡¯s even if she had to twist his tentacles off, and two she was going to kill Sildanus for letting them get into this mess. Even the damned octopi knew the pirates were coming as they had proved by coming to check them out and incidentally saving her and she suspected everyone who might survive this debacle. If the dungeon had warned Pete and his octopi then for certain sure the dwarves had been warned.

    The three women came into sight of their men just as they entered the dungeon and as Sharkspawn and his band of mercenaries peeled off to accompany the flagship that just like last time was planning to wait outside the dungeon.

    Massina and the two women with her spent a futile few minutes trying to persuade Joey to accompany them into the dungeon but he was adamant in his refusal to do so. Massina couldn¡¯t really blame him, she was the only adventurer present and he had already spent a great deal of magic to enable them to get here so quickly. And he wasn¡¯t a resident of New Town.

    So the three women entered the dungeon and chased their men. At least there didn¡¯t seem to be many if any pirates present under the waves.

    When they made contact they could see far below many monsters pacing the fleet. Massina was soon talking to her party members and the word spread. The inhabitants of New Town decided to abandon the fleet and get back home leaving vengeance for another day.

    The dungeon had other things on her mind and barely gave them any notice.

    This time Mary vowed, the coward in command is not going to get away!

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Markus was just leaving his parent¡¯s house when his little sister confronted him. Asa planted herself in the middle of the path with her hands on her hips and glared at him.

    ¡°Markus will you tell your little friend that we don¡¯t need firewood, he¡¯s only making work for me when he places piles of branches and things on the driveway and path for me to find.¡±

    Markus only just succeeded in hiding his grin at the little tearaway that had arrived after his parents grew careless thinking children were a thing of the past.

    ¡°But Asa why don¡¯t you just ignore them.¡±

    ¡°Huh! An¡¯ when papa arrives home for the office he¡¯ll havta get out of the car and remove the rubbish before he can park, or mama, will she havta drop the shopping to get rid of it? AND I¡¯LL get blamed for IT!¡±

    ¡°Um... Sorry I¡¯ll speak with Alaric,¡± said a highly amused Markus.

    Asa nodded once decisively, ¡°And will you stop those blue screens from asking me if I wanna be a little Angel or a little Hellion. I¡¯m a good little girl, just ask mama.¡±

    Markus felt as if he¡¯d just had a bucket of cold water dumped on his head and he just gaped in shock. ¡®Um... Alaric?¡¯

    Asa glared at Markus and looked somewhat satisfied at his reaction, ¡°Gotta go, me an¡¯ Pia are going to watch Pia¡¯s sister and her Gardetanz group.¡± And with that Asa was off. She tore across the road with barely a look joining her best friend Pia, and received a scolding from Pia¡¯s mother in regards to her road crossing habits.

    Markus watched a, he hoped, suitably chastised Asa being driven away his mind blank.

    ¡®Alaric?¡¯

    ¡®It¡¯s your fault boss. You said yes when the System asked you wanted it to influence your family and friends to proceed in a fashion that would fit in with your dungeon to be.¡¯

    ¡®Asa? Little Hellion? It fits but what is a little Hellion? And her friends?¡¯

    ¡®Dunno boss, some kind of devil or demon I guess. And yes you said yes to the option that opened up from the family and friends one, that their closest family and friends be offered the option. Offered, not influenced to accept like the first.¡¯

    Markus turned round and re-entered his parents house, it would seem he had things to confess and discuss.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary was feeling a bit overwhelmed, she had been surprised at how her parents had closed ranks and taken over her legal defence headache. Papa had surprised her when he had said he would set her up with a patents attorney that he knew and trusted.

    Her new attorneys had taken the case and they had even returned her deposit. They were willing to do the job for the storage device and the magic sensor she had cobbled up, though she had to provide them with an updated improved version within the month and have to offer them any upgrades she came up with at cost. They did insist on testing their detector against her pen and she could see their relief when it detected the enchanted pen.

    She didn¡¯t tell them that she could think of several ways to enchant things that wouldn¡¯t show up on any detector she could come up with at this time. After all she had a far better inbuilt detector, all she had to do was expand her domain briefly.

    The next surprise came at lunch when her stepmom Jenny turned out to be a very junior partner in a firm of Patent Attorneys. It took some effort to convince her of the truth and Jenny too was horrified by the pen. Honestly was a pen that could recover its ink really that scary. She promised Jenny a magic sniffer before she left for home.

    A phone call to Mac indicated that their favourite beaches were still infested with two legged annoyances so fishing was still out. She could almost swear she was feeling withdrawal symptoms. She felt like breaking something, preferably the ambulating annoyances on the beach. Maybe she could claim it and launch a Deep Ones invasion. After enjoying the vision the idea gave her she reluctantly discarded it. She had no idea how to generate Deep Ones.

    So late in the afternoon she went for a walk and her wandering steps took her too the park, the south-east corner had been completely changed, most of the surrounding vegetation had been ruthlessly cut back or simply eliminated and a tall barbed wire topped chain link fence had been erected around the dungeon entrance. Two mobile home type office things had been parked close to the fence and several people were wandering around while a pair of bored looking cops kept the curious at bay.

    Mary settled down in the now familiar bench and was ignored by the ducks that had by now learned that she wasn¡¯t a source of food. She looked around seeing the usual sight of parents walking kids and people walking dogs and avoiding the ever present joggers.

    She checked the spot where she had created the first access to the decoy and smiled, the disturbed earth still welcomed her so extruded a tendril of her manna and reached for the dungeon below. Contact!

    ? Hello Dr Macquarie, are you willing to talk? I¡¯m Mary and I¡¯m also a dungeon on Parthia thanks to that blue haired cow. ?

    Dr Charles Macquarie jerked in surprise when his domain was contacted by a tendril of manna that reeked of dungeon, then he choked with internal laughter at the so aptly described goddess.

    ? Yes Mary I¡¯m willing to talk, I was on Diavlo. There was absolutely nothing that could have been done. The planet died. It was horrible. ?

    Mary blinked as the pictures hit her, ¡®Hey me, you might find this interestin¡¯. Then she just sent everything up her link.

    The two exchanged information and Mary saw no reason not to update Macquarie on anything she knew or suspected. As to his complaint that he needed a companion she had no immediate solution but she promised to have a word with a pixie she knew. As for his lack of energy she found to her surprise that she did.

    ¡°Hey bich, you ugly cunt wees gonna get you for what ya did to our bros!¡±

    Mary¡¯s eyes flashed open just as she flexed her tendril of manna. She came to her feet and growled, ¡°what do you scumbags want?¡±

    Feeling brave due to his backing by his four followers Tash brandished his knife and said, ¡°gonna cut ya, an cut ya til ya die bitch.¡±

    Mary¡¯s hand flashed out and her hand closed round his forearm to the sound of breaking bones and threw him down the newly open tunnel. After the five thugs had been delivered to Macquarie she sealed the tunnel once again before heading home.

 Chapter 49

    This time it was going to be the coward¡¯s turn first. A phalanx of her sea serpents escorted by both types of barracudas swept in almost all survived the defensive spells used by Sharkspawn¡¯s Sahuagin mercenaries. Then the slaughter began, not completely one sided as Sharkspawn was no fool but as before Sharkspawn stuck to his contract and no more withdrawing, or trying to when his band accumulated the stipulated losses.

    Above the waves, the circling sea wyverns awaited until the crews attention was on the fight below before diving out of the sun. Pete¡¯s kids raised their best defences and released the two shaped boulders each carried in their storage devices before allowing their steeds to release their lightning.

    Only one of the rocks hit but that plunged right through the deck, severed the mainmast and cracked the inner hull. The lightning did fearsome execution among the crew and set two of the sails alight.

    The lampreys were not as successful this time, they easily holed the outer hull but the ship had been modified to have an inner hull. It was somewhat flimsy and it leaked but it did allow the frantic men on the pumps to cope with the rising water level.

    A second pass by the air force left the flagship burning and the crew taking to the boats. Not a wise decision in the lamprey infested sea but they had no real alternative.

    The remainder of the fleet sailed on oblivious to their commander¡¯s fate until one by one their ships started to sink. The chartered vessels with their makeshift double hulls lasted longest. Mary allowed those of her people who wanted to do so to save the crews of the impressed ships.

    She was irritated at the incompetence of her enemies. She had several backup plans and none of them had been needed.

    * * *

    On the island of Bazan in the somewhat rundown small port town of Brixia a small band of six temple guard and four wolf folk soldiers left the shrine of Ocidon along with the local priestess and her acolyte and headed for the poorly hidden shrine of Vortexius Blackbeard.

    The locals who lived near the shrine in question were surprised to see the arrival of Ocidon¡¯s priest and watched as two temple guards and the acolyte covered the shrine¡¯s back entrance while the remainder poured through the main entrance. Sounds of conflict followed but didn¡¯t last long. No temple or shrine expected to be attacked after all.

    Then the intruders set the isolated shrine on fire and watched it burn to the ground. The local watch arrived before they left and after confirming that it was temple business returned to advise their watch commander of the occurrence.

    * * *

    The holy Anchor of Ocidon watched proudly as his forces marched out of the high temple. Goran the Wily had insisted on leaving a skeleton guard in case of a counterattack. Several of his more senior priests and their subordinates were accompanying the temple¡¯s army.

    Goran still grinning fiercely marched at the head of his guard, with them marched a large contingent of well armed beastmen.

    The Irrina Pax Commander of the city guard of Ocean¡¯s Glory was in a quandary. She had over three hundred armed and armoured temple guard accompanied by what looked like at least another hundred soldiers of an elite mercenary company marching through the streets of her city.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Then it got worse. The forces of the Temple of Ocidon attacked the High Temple of Vortexius Blackbeard with strange magics that breached the walls of the temple with the sound of thunder.

    By the time the fighting had ended she had the temple surrounded with her forces. Then she was further confounded when the priests of Ocidon emerged with many of the citizens of the town who had gone missing. The priests of Vortexius Blackbeard had been indulging in slavery.

    Then the army of the high temple of Ocidon withdrew, followed by the mercenaries. They carried their dead, but the wounded had already been healed by the priests.

    Finally there were several loud claps of thunder and the whole temple collapsed in on itself. The eight badger folk present exchanged high fives.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    In that vast space carpeted with clouds the New Gods, well most of them were meeting again, somehow the Old Gods had learned of Diavlo and the disturbing prophecy that proclaimed a war of the gods was firmly entrenched and working to bring itself to fruition.

    The first three stages had already happened before they had even noticed, a world had died, a priest led an attack on a temple not his own and oneof their number had been humbled and reduced.

    It Irked Mirabelarque that they had misread the damn thing,xe had been convinced that a world dying meant Parthia and not any one of the worlds placed in their care. Then that idiot Vortexius Blackbeard in his greed had carelessly allowed one of his priests to lead an invasion of a rival¡¯s temple and had and been expelled from the seas and oceans losing his high temple along with many others.

    The god looked round with suspicion, so who was their traitor, which of them was going to desert their faction. But the war would last for a long time yet, none of their opponents had the strength needed to smite one of xyrs gods with one blow and leave a mere shell behind.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Here she was again at the top of the cliffs overlooking the ocean, she had arrived in a taxi, as her jeep was too well known by now. Rather amusing when the vehicle was more easily recognised than the owner.

    Lots of energy was flowing down her link, the invasion must be going badly for the pirates. So... claim the cliff top and a column down to sea level, add a tunnel spiralling down... Pain...

    * * *

    Hargreaves and Donnelly watched the girl stand rather too close to the edge of the cliff. They waited patiently knowing Delgado was a pro. Delgado watched the girl through the telescopic sights of his rifle. The girl was too near the cliff. Director Hansen was emphatic that they didn¡¯t want her dead.

    Then the girl stepped back looking at the ground and Delgado waited until she stopped once again before taking his shot with the Weatherby rifle he had been given for this particular job. The Director wanted it to look like some random nut had taken the shot.

    Well the girl wasn¡¯t bulletproof, the bullet had gone through her left shoulder and she had dropped to the ground. Delgado slipped out of his hide leaving the rifle behind and headed for the parking lot where he was to be picked up at a brisk walk.

    Hargreaves and Donnelly came running up full of ¨C false ¨C concern waving their guns about and pretending to look for the shooter whilst loudly proclaiming their membership of the FBI.

    An ambulance was already on its way having been kept waiting nearby for over half an hour.

    * * *

    On Parthia the other Mary felt the sting of the wound and focused her attention on the other her. Seeing that she had ¨C there was ¨C a small scrap of domain under the other her she poured energy into it and expanded it widely. She/They marked Hargreaves, Donnelly and Delgado. Especially Delgado.

    Having no conceivable excuse Mary allowed herself to be loaded on the ambulance and taken to the hospital though she added its crew to her watch/grudge list as it had arrived suspiciously fast at this somewhat remote location.

    * * *

    ¡°So?¡± asked director Hansen.

    ¡°We have blood samples and a few bits of skin and tissue. The girl is suspicious and left as soon as she conceivably could. Our scan suggests her bones have been strengthened far more than her epidermis. The bullet was deflected by one and didn¡¯t damage it. Her muscles are far denser than one would expect.¡±

    ¡°Which means?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s still human, just... improved. The army would love to do something similar to our soldiers. And now we know it can be done.¡±

 Chapter 50

    Captain Robin Goodfellow was peeved, this new complication was annoying and a godsend all in one. Crazy Lou had discovered slaves in an unexpected cellar when he had tunnelled in to place the ¨C explosives ¨C under the wall of the small temple. Thankfully Mother¡¯s spies, the adventurers had volunteered to get them out. Crazy Lou and his badger friend opened up the tunnel so that the operation could proceed on time.

    They blew a hole in the opposite wall and stormed the temple from two directions. Robin found his laser to be awesome even if he only had a total of four shots. Taking out the priests had made the attack far easier.

    The city authorities had been indignant and plagued them with various petty annoyances but, one, the followers of Vortexius Blackbeard were not liked by the city. Two, finding several fellow merchants and their entourages enslaved under the temple was an act of blatant illegality. Three, the presence of a priest of Ocidon made this a temple matter. And four... That dammed priest Faaron had instigated a fight at the Shrewd Fellow Inn and wrecked the place.

    Captain Goodfellow and his squad was escorted out of town and asked very politely never to return. One of the merchants decided to go with them and went accompanied by some of his former employees.

    The two city guard sent to follow them returned with some fancy tale of the followers of Ocidon vanishing in the river. Scouting groups found no sign of them and the tracks did end in the river, but no bodies washed up in the usual places.

    In her chamber deep under the city Arlene DuChan watched remotely and enjoyed the fact she was no longer the centre of attraction of the city¡¯s ruling council.

    * * *

    Alessandrina stood proudly before the assembled crews of the impressed ships flanked by Joy and Pounce. She was resolutely ignoring the rat Pounce had deposited at her feet.

    ¡°Please convey to your employers that Blue Lagoon defended herself as a dungeon must and that She is willing to recover, fix and return their ships for a modest fee of fifty percent of their value. This value to be established by a arbitrator from the shipbuilder¡¯s guild in Garonmouth.¡±

    The officers and crew present murmured in protest.

    ¡°Otherwise Blue Lagoon will assume the ships in question to be legal plunder and salvage and take them into Her service. As she will the chartered vessels that weren¡¯t too damaged to be worthy of salvage. It any of you wish employment, Blue Lagoon is looking for crew for Her ships.¡±

    A small percentage of the assembled officers and about half the assembled sailors expressed interest in this latest offer.

    * * *

    Tomcat conned his Alessandrina¡¯s Glory into harbour and was surprised at the size of the crowd awaiting his arrival, it seemed that most of the lagoon¡¯s children were present.

    He escorted Heartshorn down the gangplank almost tripping over one of the ambulatory fur cylinders that accompanied the elven beauty everywhere, and almost fled to the dubious safety of his cabin wen he was confronted not by Marinara alone, but Marinara arm in arm with Tarandella.

    ¡°Are you going to introduce us Tomcat the well named,¡± enquired Mari somewhat acidly.

    The local children found the antics of the furry cylinders amusing when they started to bark, jump into the air and bark. This seemed to propel them backward. Result, both barked themselves into the harbour much to the distress of their mistress who used magic to save and dry them.

    The children started to discuss the merits of the case in loud voices. It was agreed that the dogs, if those things were actually dogs had the good sense to take to the waters, but, they couldn¡¯t swim because of all the fur getting waterlogged. Disgraceful. Then several schemes for fur removal were mooted.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Tomcat could see that the adults in the audience were enjoying the show and subtly encouraging their offspring.

    ? Lynxes Tomcat, why do you think I want lynxes? Welcome home Tomcat, both you and your latest lady. Oh and keep those yap things out of my way. ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Bret put his taxi in gear and headed back to town. He hit his the quick dial on his hands free phone and was soon talking to his occasionally lucrative contact at the Maui Now station. ¡°Hey Lani, ya know that girl Silvestre, well I just dropped her of at the lookout point on ...¡±

    Aukai Mahelona and Lani Silver arrived at a vantage a nearby point to the lookout point. They set out their long range camera under the cover of some bushes and started filming while discussing how to approach the touch teen.

    They heard the shot and saw the girl fall, their cameraman spotted movement and was able to film the shooter walking briskly to a nearby car and was able to focus on the licence number. It was a bit blurred due to distance but with a bit of enhancing... Then it was back to the girl and the two be suited characters with pistols.

    They were able to film their actions, how they went direct to where the gunman had been hiding and recovered the rifle. Openly and without fear. Then the arrival of the ambulance and ¨C they all just left, it was an obvious crime scene and they just left!

    They waited a while longer then Aukai decided to risk it and went do some investigating, he returned with a a scrape of bloody earth in the plastic bag that had contained his lunch and they headed back to the station with what they all felt was a scoop.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary walked into Flip¡¯s office, her left arm in a sling. She spent the next half hour explaining and assuring him that she had not suffered any lasting harm.

    ¡°Look Flip can you and your mates create a program for sorting through thousands of phone calls by key words, believe it or not I can pay. Here I¡¯ll show you my problem.¡±

    She then allowed her magic bug receptor to play, it sounded like half a hundred conversations funning at once. She was easily able to flip from one to another and did so prioritising the ones she knew were relevant.

    ¡°Um, sis, you... this is illegal as hell sis...¡± Then he heard one voice explaining how the plan to shoot Silvestre had worked and they now had scans and samples for their advanced labs. ¡°I¡¯ll get right on it sis, can I keep that thing?¡±

    ¡°Yeh Flip, I can make another. Now I gotta go see papa an¡¯ his new girl.¡±

    * * *

    When she arrived at the rented holiday house to see her father and stepmother, things started out in the same fashion as with Flip.

    Things got derailed when the television, tuned into Maui Now and playing in the background decided to show their breaking story with one of the agents being tentatively identified as Cyrus Donnelly of Homeland Security.

    Mary just took out a silver ring that had a red thread tied around it and activated the enchantment. Then she waited for her father to calm down... it took a long time... before she was able to show him and an equally indignant Jenny the three bugs that were hidden in the lounge, dining room and master bedroom.

    It was nearly an hour later before she was able to present Jenny with four of her enchanted rings. A detector of electronic listening devices that was also able to destroy them. A storage device with eight slots, though she did explain how she learned how to make them. A ring of protection that would hit anyone who attacked the wearer with a shock on the order of one delivered by a cattle prod. And the magic detector. She then offered a more powerful version of the ring of protection.

    She carefully made no mention of her accidentally learned frogging enchantment that at present was only to be found on her jeep, principally because she was still unsure how and why it worked. She was also worried that her jeep seemed to be developing an ego and personality like some of the magic swords in fantasy tales and legends.

    It was only when Mary was finally ready to leave that she noticed the television in the corner. In the hours since the story had broken it would appear that all hell had broken loose. Homeland Security was ¡®investigating¡¯, six agents were suspended pending ¡®investigation¡¯. Whatever had happened was ¡®regretted¡¯, and...

    Then assorted personalities were weighing in with their opinions ¨C and there was a massive crowd of reporters and curiosity seekers congregating in various locations including outside her home and at her lookout point where a crime scene had now been set up.

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    Ocidon the Earthshaker called a meeting of the Old Gods and the Unaffiliated Gods and was satisfied that more than a third of them had turned up. He then shared with them the visions of the death of Diavlo Mary had obtained somehow and shared with him.

    They already knew, and most had disapproved of the chastising of Vortexius Blackbeard but now they knew. The prophecy was unfolding in all its uncertainty.

 Chapter 51

    It was a miserable grey day in Garonmouth and the guiding council of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild was meeting in one of the panelled rooms on the second floor. A large fire was burning in the fireplace and the three most important members of the regional headquarters of the guild were present as were two others.

    Sofos Ironfist the guildmaster and his number two Sarannas were looking unhappy. ¡°We are here to consider the preliminary report on this Mock Turtle Dungeon.¡± Stated Sofos.

    ¡°The Roving Valkyries, a Veteran ranked group, accompanied by a Paladin of Hel-Arlizzy,¡± Sarannas paused to give Estgadon a considering look before continuing. ¡°Entered the dungeon close to Arsouk and were unable to get past the second room. They only got past the first because the dungeon is honouring the contract that the prior dungeon had with the guild.¡±

    ¡°That can¡¯t be all or we wouldn¡¯t be sitting here,¡± interjected Taron.

    Sofos grimaced, ¡°no it isn¡¯t, the Valkyries located the new entrance of the Last Stand dungeon and the large village of beastfolk that has been established outside its entrance. They were able to find a guide, a guide that was able to keep the dungeon passive and allowed them to navigate the dungeon. It uses portals and has at least two other entrances. One within an hour¡¯s walk of the city state of Folding Deep and the other, we believe but haven¡¯t confirmed that it is in the same valley as that uninspired goblin themed dungeon near Celestial Peaks.¡±

    ¡°Celestial Peaks? But that¡¯s only a couple of hundred leagues from here near Jandorton and Folding Deep¡¯s on the continent of Fraldator. Soros, that¡¯s three entrances on three continents. That can¡¯t be right!¡± exclaimed a startled Taron. ¡°Are you sending another team to confirm these findings? Creevar¡¯s Killers are the most experienced at the moment. Send them.¡±

    Sofos Ironfist looked as if he was sucking a lemon, ¡°They refused. Creevar has forbidden them from accessing the dungeon. Taron, would you consider coming out of retirement and recruiting a team to attempt the assessment?¡±

    Taron looked up with a glint in his eye, he¡¯d show this namby pamby later generation what their elders were made of. ¡°Yes of course Sofos. It would be a pleasure.¡±

    ¡°Right, now Estgadon, as his priest, what do you know of this Paladin of your god?¡± asked Sarannas.

    * * *

    Tomcat settled his ladies in a sprawling house just outside Silverton, he had managed to persuade an amused Mary to raise it and he and his ladies inspected it in the morning. It was on the by now familiar central courtyard plan with defensible outer walls. The ladies were very impressed with the running water and other amenities.

    An exhausted Tomcat dragged his tail back abroad the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory two days later and set sail once again for Garonmouth laden with the officers of the impressed ships and some of their crew along with a small company of marines.

    While not record breaking the trip was fast, it certainly impressed the ship¡¯s officers he was conveying. On arrival they dispersed to make arrangements for further travel or to contact their owners.

    Tomcat walked through the streets in contemplative mood. He watched the passing scenery with appreciation, especially if it involved young ladies. He soon reached the building that housed the shipbuilder¡¯s guild. He glanced around briefly, his gaze lingering on an attractive fruit seller before entering. At reception he flirted with an appreciative receptionist and asked if he could have a meeting with one of the guild¡¯s arbitrators.

    He was in luck, he only had to wait an hour before one could see him and he spent it most agreeably in Zoreena¡¯s company. They agreed to meet for dinner at the Silver Cauldron, one of Garonmouth¡¯s more exclusive ¨C and expensive ¨C restaurants.

    At his meeting with the arbitrator he explained the circumstances that had led to Mary¡¯s need for an arbitrator and asked if the guild could spare one for a month or so and what compensation they and the arbitrator in question would require.

    After agreeing to the terms and passing over half the fee specified as required and arranging for the remainder to be held by the temple of Ocidon Tomcat concluded the meeting cheerfully shaking the man¡¯s hand. So he now had to wait two days until the journeyman selected by the guild would be ready to board the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    The Silver Cauldron lived up to its reputation and it was a pair of slightly tipsy revellers that retired to a nearby comfortable inn for the night. Zoreena and Tomcat enjoyed the theatre on the next evening, attending a public ball on the next. They remained at the inn for both days. After protracted goodbyes Tomcat headed back to his ship feeling at peace with the world. That is until he passed an enchanter¡¯s shop, slapped his head and headed in to purchase something one of the advertised rings enchanted to act as contraceptives.

    Tomcat found the journeyman already abroad ship, and the captains plus crew of one of the impressed ships ready to board. His company while not happy had agreed to the terms. Also with them were what looked like a small legal team that requested passage to first the Silverton and Blue Lagoon and then to Drakoton.

    * * *

    Mary soon had the eight impressed merchantmen patched up and floating at anchor in her lagoon. By now regenerating the hull timbers to eliminate the holes was easy through constant practice. This done she turned to other things.

    ? Um, Trisha, do you think I should tone down those mangrove caverns in the Mock Turtle dungeon. The Valkyries are supposed to be good but they didn¡¯t even get to first base. ?

    Trisha cast her eyes up in exasperation, ¡°Mary, what part of a mass of roots separated by barely enough space for one of your barracuda... It¡¯s ambush heaven for the ¡®cuda and those toothy eel like things you thought up. And if the poor bastards wear metal armour your ¡®letric ¡®cuda will light them up.¡±

    ? Erm. ?

    ¡°Anyway it¡¯s too late now. You have a vicious first floor and it gets worse from there. Then there¡¯s Tentacles and whatever you¡¯re dreaming up as a final boss.¡±

    ? So you¡¯re sayin¡¯ I should leave things be? ?

    ¡°Yes! Or maybe you should just up the rewards again. Sheesh, I¡¯m just sorry I ever asked you to create a real dungeon.¡±

    ? ... ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Dr Macquarie was feeling distracted, his non-existent link ached; it felt as if he lacked a limb. He was putting out a call. He had felt some pixies but they had moved away. And then his former colleagues were working their way slowly and exquisite care room by room, erecting steel grates and cages as they went. They had cleared half his first level. He could always absorb the grates etc when they withdrew for the night or for lunch. Or even when they withdrew for a smoke. However it would probably only make things worse.

    Then... Something was coming... Something old and strange... It was following his call.

    The ancient huaka¡®i po was tired; its brethren had long since departed. Then it felt this call coming from under the ground. It mirrored the ache he felt for his missing brethren so he answered.

    Two lonely beings met, felt a common need and they exchanged ideas, thoughts, needs. They slowly came to an agreement. The huaka¡¯i po would hunt and the dungeon would cease being passive and actively work to survive. With their agreement the bond was formed and neither was alone.

    Dr Macquarie expanded sideways whilst his huaka¡®i po explored the land above, then he created a passage up from the depths seeking an alternate exit.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary had spent, wasted two whole day answering silly and nonsensical questions, she readily accepted that the people who arranged for her to be shot were rogues. Or rather she tried hard to convince people that she did believe it. No point putting her tormentors on their guard any more than they already were.

    And now it was time to return to school as the idiots seemed to have calmed down and an uneasy peace was descending on the streets.

    School seemed alien, people that she barely knew kept coming up to her with good wishes and commiserations. Irritatingly she was able to perceive through another skill gifted her by Bluey that most actually were sincere. And almost everyone was jabbing at the air in front of their face despite her evaluate telling her that about half hadn¡¯t been integrated yet.

    Thankfully she was able to duck PE, it always annoyed her that the coach was always after her to throw a stupid ball through a too small basket. The woman seemed incapable of believing that her victims didn¡¯t believe that throwing balls at baskets wasn¡¯t the most important thing in the world.

    Then the mismatched stars of the school chess club accosted her over lunch. Sottomayor, the best pitcher in the school and Fredericks the o so very unathletic maths genius.

    ¡°Mary, is it true that you can see the blue screens?¡± asked Fredericks.

    ¡°And how come you don¡¯t need to touch the screens?¡± demanded Sotomayor.

    Mary rolled her eyes, ¡°the screens are in your mind, only you can see them unless you select the share option. Just look at the option you want an¡¯ say the word in you mind. Bluey will do the rest.¡±

    ¡°Bluey?¡± asked Fredericks.

    ¡°¡¯S what I call the System. He hasn¡¯t complained yet.¡±

    ¡°Can you really change your race and sex when you use the setup system?¡± asked Sotomayor.

    ¡°¡¯Course, but you have to insist an¡¯ confirm three times when you want that kind of change. Careful what you ask for though, there¡¯s no goin¡¯ back once you¡¯re assimilated.¡±

    ¡°Assimilated?¡± asked a voice from behind her back.

    Mary glanced over her shoulder. ¡°Yeah, when Bluey integrates you into the System. Assimilated.¡±

    Once school was over for the day she slid into her jeep and stared as the engine fired up by itself. She felt an eagerness to be gone, to be motoring that wasn¡¯t her.

    ¡°¡¯K sweetheart, lets be goin¡¯.¡±

 Chapter 52

    Samaraan grinned with delight. He had just found and opened another secret door, this one led to a long twisty loop of a corridor. The stories were different too. He dindn¡¯t think much of the god named Zeus, that trick with the swan was nasty. The story about King Midas however was cool. Served him right.

    The skinny little boy clambered out of the story palace and sat cross legged by the entrance soaking up the sun and thinking.

    ¡®Mother, can I ask you something?¡¯

    ? You found my newest extension... you know you can Samaaran. ?

    Samaraan grinned as the dungeon¡¯s amused voice sounded in his mind. ¡®I think the sea elves are cool, ¡®cause they can breath underwater and see all the things... Um... an¡¯ they seem to swim better than us... can you change me... um... us... that is mum, dad and my sister too... so that we could have that ability too...¡¯

    Mary was somewhat taken aback, why hadn¡¯t she ever considered this... Mmm, she already had experience with the dual purpose lungs of the sea elves so, easy, well not easy but not a problem. Then there was the inherent magic that gave them the ability to slide through the water like a fish... Hmm, she had absorbed several sea elf pirates. A straight graft wouldn¡¯t work, but with a little work on the telomeres... yes that should work.

    Samaaran waited, and waited and had almost given up on receiving a reply when Mary finally replied to his query.

    ? Yes I could do that, but understand it would change you, you would become, um, sea humans I guess. And as you¡¯re a child I would need your parent¡¯s permission. ?

    If Samaraan wasn¡¯t sitting cross legged he would have been jumping up and down with excitement. He scrambled to his feet. ¡°Oh wow! I can¡¯t wait... Thanks Mother.¡±

    ? Wait a sec, take the glass bead and use it to contact me when you have an answer. ?

    Samaraan snatched up the bead that had appeared by his feet and left at a flat out run.

    Mary watched, bemused and disabled the little traps she had scattered about the island to keep the kids alert and as teaching aids, as at that speed kid could actually hurt himself.

    That evening in Silverton, and after the kids had very reluctantly gone to bed Samaraan¡¯s parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts congregated to debate the remarkable news Samaraan had imparted about Mary¡¯s offer, for somehow Samaraan had perceived Mary¡¯s response to his query as an open offer to him and his family.

    As members of the archipelago¡¯s original human inhabitants they were all rather more responsive to the offer due to their historic dependence on the sea. Finally Voxtraan, Samaraan¡¯s father picked up the bead. ¡°Mother?¡±

    Some seconds later Mary replied.

    ? Yes Voxtraan, what do you want to know about the prize your son won? ?

    ¡°Won!¡±

    ? Yes he found my latest hidden annexe and as you know I offer a prize to the first child that discovers one. He asked for the ability to breath water and air and the ability to slide through the sea. ?

    The adults looked at each other before Voxtraan asked the question that had been vexing them. ¡°Are there any penalties associated to this change?¡±

    ? The same as the sea elves have. The absolute need to breath sea water at the very least once a week or the lungs will collapse and you will die. Ideally, you will need to breath water once a day. ?

    ¡°And what about if one of the kids falls in love with a normal human in the future?¡±

    ? Just like the sea elves, they would have half sea humans. ?

    ¡°Not for me,¡± said the old grandmother as she sat back in her chair.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    ¡°Nor me,¡± added her husband with regret in his voice.

    ¡°Mother will you please change us, starting with Samaraan as it was thanks to him that we have this boon available,¡± asked Voxtraan.

    Mary sighed internally, but she turned her attention to Samaraan and his sister crouched at the head of the stairs as they strained their ears to hear everything that was said down below.

    ? Right you two, bed! If I¡¯m going to change you, you need to be asleep. ?

    Mary actually enjoyed herself changing the two eager volunteers, troubleshooting the changes and refining the changes. Samaraan and his sister took her the better part of six hours, then all the other children of the extended family occupied her for another hour. Then she started in on the adults who had indicated an interest starting with the early risers and working her way through the ones who didn¡¯t need to wake early. She was surprised to note that each change required a single drop of celestial manna to free some kind of mystic lock.

    ¡°WHAT ARE YOU DOING?¡± shrieked Trisha as she was working on the last of her volunteers.

    ? Turning them into sea humans at their request, and you don¡¯t need to scream. ?

    Trish watched wide eyed as Mary finished. ¡°Oh God Mary ¨C changing one of the, the eight races is just not done.¡±

    ? Why? Someone created the sea elves after all. ?

    ¡°But only a god... Oh never mind, will you please talk it over with me if you decide to do something like this again.¡±

    * * *

    Danilus Oakborn looked across his desk at his senior priest.

    ¡°Mary¡¯s done it again hasn¡¯t she sir?¡± asked Annoraa the Fair.

    ¡°Yes, Ocidon is delighted. He is very proud of his... consort and ally. These ¨C sea humans belong to his consort, so they belong to him... What the High Gods will make of it... There is now no way to prevent the Gods War now that the High Gods have been defied.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE * * *

    On Tuesday Mary looked glumly at the beach, it had been clear but as soon as she turned up so did all the idiots with cameras and inane questions. At least this bunch was better than the masked thugs that had been here last week. But she still couldn¡¯t fish and the others were being grossly inconvenienced because of her presence.

    So after posing for yet more photos and film, and answering the same questions again she hopped back in her jeep and took off leaving yet more scraps of tracking bugs in the car park, this time they belonged to the networks and not the feds.

    So off to the lookout point, a quick glance let her know she still had slightly more than half a tank of gas...

    ¡®Hey wait a minute, when did I last fill up, two weeks? Three? Beep! Pity you can¡¯t talk yet, just feel.¡¯

    As she approached the lay by where she usually parked she entered her domain. She was just entering the cutting where the road cut through a ridge when she had an idea and slowed pulling off the road onto the rocky verge. She stared at the rocky wall of the cut and concentrated. A cave was easy, a large hidden door was harder. She looked round and checked her domain. The door opened and she drove in, the door closing behind her.

    She could feel the sea and the chamber she had created previously. She started driving a wide even tunnel up from that cavern, she added two wide one eighty turns as the tunnel drew near to the cave she was parked in. Three hours later and she still wasn¡¯t finished, she used the absorbed rock and dirt to start building a beach at the foot of the cliff, just dumping it to create a shallow area.

    Checking outside, she opened her door and backed out. Then she accelerated and headed home. Her own private beach with it¡¯s own car park. Fun. The only problem was this desire, almost a compulsion to fill the sea that resided in her domain with assorted modified barracuda, ditto stingrays and a monstrous sea serpent type snake or two.

    Wednesday it was school and more tunnel, enlargement and growth.

    Thursday saw her in school again. Then she went home to pick up a couple badger ¡®folk badly disguised in baggy shirts and hats, and back to her new project. Into the hidden garage, park and complete the ramp. Then she drove carefully to the sea level cavern and parked. Next job was creating living quarters for the Badgers while they unloaded the Jeep. Finally she created a mostly submerged cave entrance and a deep channel or pool along one side of the cavern.

    She watched enviously as the Badgers set out to catch their dinner while she headed out so as to be home on time. Tomorrow she vowed, she would finish her beach with sand and break out her rod.

    Friday started much like Thursday except that she transported one badger and one wolf ¡®folk. Once parked in her cavern she dove into the channel and swam through the entrance of the underwater cave and into the open sea. She treaded water for nearly an hour as she arranged her new beach to her satisfaction before going ashore and grinning happily.

    ¡®Fishing rod, here I come... Hmm best arrange another way onto this beach...¡¯

    She could feel the chamber behind the cliff, so small corridor and another concealed door. Then she really looked at the cliff and spent a considerable amount of time stabilizing and solidifying it.

    Then... Bliss... Standing on a beach hauling in fish, or just standing there looking at the waves.

    That evening she got home with a cooler half filled with her catch.

    Naturally, her obsession made her oblivious to the fact that several organisations of quite determined people were getting frustrated at her managing to vanish for hours at a time with her Jeep in what was after all a quite open area.

 Chapter 53

    Mary was quite busy changing people. Almost all the original islanders came asking along with a few others. The only people she refused were the pregnant women, and in their case it was, ¡®after the baby is born ¡®K.¡¯

    She was glad to switch her attention to Captain Goodfellow and his squad and guests on their return.

    ? Hello Robin, nice to have you back, don¡¯t get too comfortable I have another mission for you. My spies have located a dungeon that goes by the name ANS 28 and we are going to wake it up. By all reports it¡¯s a fairly uninspiring affair but it uses wolves as it¡¯s main monster type and some of its caves feature snowstorms. ?

    Robin grinned fiercely, more fun, ¡°Yes Mother, when do we start.¡±

    ? The Wave Skimmer is awaiting you in the harbour, you will have to pretend to be an adventuring company and leave some of your people outside the dungeon to make the illusion stick. Six seems to be the limit on each delve unless someone wants to kill or capture the dungeon. ?

    ¡°Can I take all my people?¡±

    ? Yes. I suggest recruiting a few humans, elves or dwarves to help the illusion along. Stick to followers of the old gods. I want you to take a small crystal along and touch it to the core when you reach it. You can assure the core that it will not capture or kill it. Don¡¯t tell it we are going to free it from the blue haired cow¡¯s binding. ?

    ¡°Can I keep the priest?¡±

    ? As far as I¡¯m concerned yes. You¡¯ll have to ask him, he works for Ocidon after all. ?

    Captain Robin Goodfellow was almost bouncing with joy. He was purring.

    Goodfellow and his expanded squad boarded the Wave Skimmer in time for the evening tide and were on their way to the port of Varopolis along with an infiltration squad of man-rats.

    * * *

    Taron the Ravager wasn¡¯t one hundred percent satisfied with his party but he was satisfied that they were as ready as they could be and while two old comrades had refused their substitutes were among the best of the best.

    They had gone through the reports supplied by the Roving Valkyries and all of them had flexible metallic armour to defend their legs from the various fish that lurked among the roots of the mangroves. Well all of them bar Fingers Caracaa, she was using some kind of padded cotton armour. They all also all had enchanted items to allow them to survive and navigate the underwater caves.

    Taron and his party signed up with a caravan heading for Jandorton and quickly lost the rosy view they had developed since their retirement of rough nights and the discomforts of life on the trail. They soon regained their old habits and alertness.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    By the time they got to Jandorton they were ready to go. They stopped in at the local Guild office and sought out all the latest news regarding their target or targets.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    One morning in the building housing the office of the Joint Chiefs two people were occupied setting up a projector under the bored gaze of a number of senior military officers.

    ¡°So, what do you have for us that you say is so important, and why do you think we need to see it. All that mess coming out of Maui is irrelevant.¡±

    ¡°Sir,¡± said the spokesman for DARPA, ¡°the subject has a jeep that... well, we have found it flat out impossible to bug it. The vehicle itself seems to detect and destroy any device attached to it. The girl is often not even near it when this occurs. We are certain that one vehicle thief who was paid to target it vanished.¡±

    He displayed several photographs and film clips to his bored audience.

    ¡°Then starting last Tuesday, the vehicle has become impossible to locate by artificial means. It doesn¡¯t register on radar, laser targeting doesn¡¯t work, and we can¡¯t photograph or film it.¡±

    More film, this time showing at most a faint blur or shimmer, an empty section moving in dense traffic.

    ¡°How sure are you of this data?¡± asked one of the air force officers present.

    ¡°Our drone has proven useless, but our agents on the ground could usually see the girl and the jeep though sometimes they were only aware that ¡®a vehicle¡¯ was present.¡±

    ¡°Do you think the girl will talk to us?¡± asked the naval officer.

    ¡°Possibly. If it wasn¡¯t for those idiots at Homeland I would have said yes for sure. I¡¯d recommend someone connected to the navy or coastguard, someone who is passionate about the sea. Oh, and for gods sake talk to the girl¡¯s mother first.¡±

    * * *

    In Honolulu some embattled and frustrated FBI directors were contemplating much the same data and making plans. They too were cursing the overeager idiots at Homeland. Their drone thanks to their star drone pilot had managed to follow a speeding blur up to cliff top lookout point three times that week but it always lost it at that point. They were currently making plans for a far less high tech shadowing operation.

    * * *

    As for Homeland Security, housecleaning was well underway and the knives were out.

    In Congress and Senate the professional politicians manoeuvred to portray themselves in the best possible light.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    On Saturday Mary phoned her friends Mac and AnnMarie. They were both frustrated as the press had the tendency to harass anyone who had been fishing with her.

    Mary understood their frustration only too well, so with some trepidation she told them she had found a secluded spot and invited them along. She suggested that they should meet her at the layby at the top of the cliffs.

    While she was waiting she felt something intrude on her domain. She focused and found a large drone loitering.

    She was still glaring in the direction of the distant drone when first AnnMarie then Mac arrived. She grinned and gestured for them to follow. She formed a haze over the road to block the drone and then she drove down the road into the cut, ordered the door to open and drove in. She could sense the hesitation and rampant curiosity behind her. In both cases curiosity won and they drove into the passage. Mary closed the door behind them.

    Parking in the cavern she jumped out of the jeep and grabbed her fishing stuff and grinned at her friends bemused looks as they got out of their cars and looked round in amazement.

    Mary opened the door to the beach and led the way out to her private beach.

    Later, over lunch she found herself being forced to explain, and of course to introduce the new dungeon¡¯s current inhabitants, namely the three badger ¡®folk and their wolf ¡®folk friend. The thing that saved her was the bribe she had available. A nice quiet beach and the promise of a key to open the doors ¨C soon.

 Chapter 54

    Captain Robin Goodfellow watched as the Wave Skimmer nosed its way up the river Taran past over half a dozen anchored ships awaiting the wind to change. They sailed past Taramouth and carried on upriver. The fields on either side of the Taran were neat and productive with several fortified villages and hamlets. The locals seemed to have something against trees as Robin hadn¡¯t seen one yet.

    Five hours later and having passed two merchantmen being towed by galleys the towering walls of Varopolis finally came into sight. By this time they had an escort, a small liburnian was being rowed energetically in their wake. Charles, the captain of Wave Skimmer watched the liburnian for a while before ordering his crew to furl the sails slightly so as not to outpace it, and not give too much away if he had to make a run for it.

    On docking Captain Charles hosted the cities harbourmaster and the leader of the river patrol. Both requested to be shown round the ship for different reasons. The harbourmaster was shocked at the number of passenger cabins and the small but high value perishable cargo. The leader of the river patrol looked dubiously at the backward leaning masts and unorthodox sail plan.

    The Wave Skimmer¡¯s purser cum cargo master happily came close to crashing the local spice market, the saffron was especially well received. He held onto the pearls and did the rounds of the local gem merchants buying selected items of jewellery and any and all outstanding gems he could afford. And thanks to the saffron and spices he could afford a lot.

    Then he visited the local office of the alchemist¡¯s guild. Zack approached the receptionist and told him he had a sample of a new magical herb that had been found in a dungeon recently and he wanted it tested and valued. He offered to pay the standard fee. The receptionist accepted the sample and payment, including a bonus for speedy conclusion, as the Wave Skimmer would be sailing soon. Zack pocketed the receipt and left.

    Robin and his squad remained on board to augment the guard, the man-rats and their meerkat friends disembarked during the night.

    When Zack returned to the Alchemist¡¯s guild two days later he was greeted with open arms, The guild was very eager to know which dungeon the herb had been discovered in. Zack apologised, the adventurer¡¯s had been very secretive however he did have some...

    * * *

    In the headquarters of the river patrol Admiral Chan¡¯ardon looked at his captains, ¡°It would seem we have a treasure ship on our hands, the scum of the river will be out in force. I want our galleys spread out along the river, hopefully this will allow us to clear out the worst of the scum.¡±

    ¡°Won¡¯t we be offering them an escort as usual.¡±

    ¡°We have and were politely refused on the grounds that we wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up, and the captain is confident in his marines. Marines! She¡¯s no smuggler as we feared, I suspect she¡¯s someone¡¯s state yacht.¡±

    * * *

    Robin and his squad disembarked and watched as the Wave Skimmer spread her canvas when dawn was breaking and eased her way out into the river. They and the river admiral watched as her sailors went round the hull prying away the false d¨¦cor that disguised her lines. The mat black ship was soon scudding before the wind making for the sea cleaving the river with her knife sharp bows.

    Robin turned and led his people towards the local seat of the adventurer¡¯s guild.

    The arrival of eleven large well armed and armoured intimidating Tiger beastmen accompanied by two humans and two more beastmen, a badger and a... meerkat? All wearing a blue green tabard with an embroidered silver dolphin on the right shoulder brought all activity to a halt. Admittedly there wasn¡¯t much happening so early in the morning.

    Robin grinned and strode up to the reception desk and said. ¡°My name¡¯s Robin Goodfellow, and I¡¯m the commander of our company, we are tired of the mercenary life and wish to register in your guild and declare ourselves as an adventuring company.¡±

    Ravenbriar the gnome currently standing behind the reception desk looked up, and up and squeaked, ¡°Just let me call one of the guild officials to deal with your request.¡± Then he took off in a hurry.

    While Ravenbriar was gone, Faaron went up to the notice board and stuck up a poster.

    When just after lunch Robin led his people out of town they were accompanied by three new recruits, two hopeful siblings who had just hit their majority and a gruff dwarf who had made himself unpopular after a couple of binges. The siblings were taken in hand and had a rather exhausting time of it but the rapid level gains made them stick with their new comrades.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    * * *

    Mary was busy, she had decided to discard the three chartered merchantmen she had sunk in her domain and absorbed their materials. Three days later after having enlarged her shipbuilding facilities and locks she released her latest fun project. The Cutty Sark II sailed across the lagoon and anchored just outside the harbour.

    ¡°Honestly Mary, I thought you wanted merchantmen optimised for cargo, that thing is very pretty and looks fast but haven¡¯t you sacrificed cargo for speed again?¡± asked Trisha.

    ? Yeah! But she¡¯s pretty and she can carry lots of cargo. ?

    * * *

    The Alesandrina¡¯s Glory arrived back in good time and Tomcat introduced his passengers to the Voice.

    Drina instructed the appraiser. ¡°Be aware that while Mary Silvestre does not wish to be cheated she also does not wish to beggar those who had the misfortune to have their ships seized. So estimate low, but not unbelievably so.¡±

    ¡°If that is your wish, I will do so. But not wishing to look like a fool I will indeed set a ¨C justifiable value on the ships.¡±

    ¡°Good. I suspect it would be wise to start with whatever ship they are here to regain.¡±

    At the end of the day three ships had been duly appraised and the documentation to that effect had been drawn up and witnessed by the merchants, their small legal team and their appraiser.

    In fact their independent appraiser had queried the, somewhat low value attributed to the ships.

    ¡°My client requested it, she does not wish to unduly penalise the victims of theft.¡±

    The legal team paid using a letter of credit and left on the redeemed ship which much to her captain¡¯s disgust had to leave in ballast.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Dave and Maddy were watching the BBC news in their apartment in Hove when their interest was caught by a throwaway snippet about Germany.

    ¡°Do you think that lad is something like you Dave?¡± asked Maddy.

    ¡°Possibly, I think the first twenty-five victims were sent to Diavlo.¡±

    ¡°Should we contact him?¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t hurt, let me check with Andy and see what he thinks.¡±

    Andy was watching a pixie as she buzzed around his valley. She seemed both fascinated and scared of the Mock Turtle dungeon across the way. Now she was looking into his entrance. Then his other self called so he split his attention and answered.

    He wasn¡¯t able to help Dave decide.

    ¡®Yesss! She entered!¡¯ Andy hurriedly restrained all his monsters and traps and waited nervously.

    ? Yes Azurea mentioned Diavlo, and yes sent twenty-five of us there. All I can add is to be wary of the girl from Hawaii, she is one of the four most powerful dungeons here on Parthia and she did it in less than a year. That implies ruthlessness, ambition and power. ?

    ¡°And how many dungeons are there on Parthia?¡± asked Maddy.

    ? Thousands. ?

    ¡®Yes little one, please come down to my second floor.¡¯

    ¡°Right, lets see what we can find out about this Markus Wrangel and get in touch with him. Then we can decide if we get back in touch with Mary after we speak with him. Can¡¯t do any harm as he won¡¯t have any contacts on Partia.¡±

    Meanwhile back on Parthia Andy had lost interest and was now avidly watching the little dungeon pixie getting closer to his heart room.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary saw her guests out, then she headed home in a hurry, she had just remembered that she had promised officer Meier that she would go to his party today. So home, a quick shower and decent clothes but nothing fancy.

    The house and garden were crowded and a towering Frank Meier insisted on showing her round and introducing her to a new world. She actually had fun and towards the end of the party found herself in the company of Mrs Meier or Ellie as she preferred to be called.

    ¡°Frank told me how you saved his sight, and how you were able to argue with whatever is behind the blue screens, can you persuade him, it whatever to change me too. At the moment we are too different but...¡±

    ¡°Um, Bluey, yeah maybe if you¡¯re sure. But it will be for life and it... um, maybe, I think so. Bluey is... is... like some overeager teenager sometimes, other times he¡¯s like some ancient sage but with a bizarre sense of humour. Other me doesn¡¯t listen to him much ¡®case of how they... met? Yeah met.¡±

    ¡°Please. It could save my marriage, and I love him.¡±

    Mary gave her a blank look of incomprehension, blinked and switched her attention to her interface. It took her half an hour to manage to get Bluey to integrate Ellie into the System then a further ten to help her navigate her interface and force the choice she wanted. The main difficulty came in ensuring that Ellie got the same package as her husband and not just any Half-Giant option most of which featured some very undesirable side effects.

    When they were done and Mary was once again paying attention to the rest of the world she realised that she had a fascinated audience. Frank looked at her thoughtfully, ¡°now I understand what you were doing when you kept on harping on about intelligence and temperament. Thanks again. Oh and today you can drive home in peace, nobody will see you.¡±

    Mary walked out to her jeep, the recipient of several pats on the back, and statements of friendship.

    * * *

    Sunday saw her working with her badger folk claiming and then enlarging the tunnels they were digging to link the dungeon under her house and the one under the cliffs that included an arc of open sea.

    Towards lunch time Mary sensed an intrusion in her domain and went out onto the beach to see a middle-aged Hawaiian couple standing by a very traditional canoe and looking round with interest.

    ¡°Mornin¡¯, we were about to have lunch, want to join us?¡±

 Chapter 55

    Captain Charles of the Wave Skimmer stood firmly planted on his quarterdeck dividing his attention between the sonar display and the river as his command almost flew down the river with the wind at its back. The crew remained tense and attentive to any orders. The marine contingent stood ready to spring into action.

    The river patrol galleys, despite their best efforts kept being caught and overtaken by the racing treasure ship.

    Downstream where the Taran spread out and became shallow over moth of its width a pirate liburnian was anchored crosswise to block the navigable channel. From the shore a small cavalry patrol watched, impotent.

    Captain Charles¡¯ tail wagged in glee, it was going to be a bad day for those pirates, he checked the sonar display once more then placed his hand on the manna stone embedded in the rail by the wheel and activated the enchantment.

    ¡°Brace for impact! Prepare to man the ballista!¡±

    ¡°Cap, you sure ¡®bout this?¡± asked the helmsman.

    ¡°Mother promised.¡±

    The cavalry patrol watched horrified expecting a messy crash as the Wave Skimmer seemed to settle in the water of the river as her bow wave grew and seemed to move to a point in front of the bow.

    On the galley the pirates watched appalled, it looked like they would loose their galley and have to dive for the treasure, not reassuring with that dammed cavalry patrol watching.

    Then the carbon monofilament wires that were being held thirty centimetres ahead of the Wave Skimmer¡¯s bows sliced into and through the blocking lightly built racing galley and the Wave Skimmer continued downriver with scarcely a check. Charles removed his hand from the manna stone.

    ¡°Stand down, for now.¡±

    * * *

    Taron the Ravager and his veterans occupied one of the private conference rooms at the Jandorton guild hall, also present was Durati, the only local adventurer who had ventured into the dungeon they were interested in.

    They had spoken to the guildmaster and agreed to evaluate the changes in the unnamed goblin dungeon, and again Durati proved useful. His assessment that it was more dangerous and imaginative than before fit the pattern of a dungeon that had changed companions.

    They went shopping, a large capacity storage device, two large tents, camp beds and other comforts purchased the veterans headed to the best restaurant in town followed by a night at a luxury inn.

    The following day they, reluctantly headed out of town and made their way to the valley that contained the two dungeons.

    Andy barely noticed their arrival as the pixie made her way carefully through his as yet mostly empty sixth level. Fleur had noted the signs of recent improvement as she advanced through the dungeon, it wasn¡¯t a great dungeon but it had potential especially now that the slimes seemed to have been integrated into the traps. Still it was nothing like her mama¡¯s dungeon.

    Taron watched as the two servants they had hired went about setting up camp in the valley in sight of the two dungeon entrances. And yes it was a case of two dungeons, the aura they gave off was very different.

    Andy watched as his visitor flew slowly into his heart room and looked around with interest. She was obviously young and wore her dark hair in a pixie cut.

    Fleur looked round the heart room with interest, it was guarded by seven of the new Badger ¡®folk with two carefully sited ballista and all carried powerful crank crossbows along with assorted melee weapons. They were grinning at her.

    The core was set in a small alcove guarded with steel bars that looked new. The Ruby glowed clearly.

    ? Hello, welcome to my home. Do you want to stay and be my companion? ?

    ? What happened to your previous companion? ?

    ? I cut the connection with the System¡¯s agreement and asked him to leave. He did. ?

    ? All the improvements I sensed are yours? ?

    ? Yes, but I had help from Blue Lagoon and I owe her a few favours in return. ?The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ? How can you trust these free willed badger ¡®folk to defend you? ?

    ? If I don¡¯t challenge their ¡°Mother¡± they are loyal, very loyal. I gave them life after all. ?

    ? And they still have a higher loyalty? ?

    ? Blue lagoon is, I think and hope, unique. ?

    Fleur licked her lips nervously. ? Um, you do know that Blue Lagoon has taken a central role in the Gods War that has just started? ¨C Yes I Fleur will join with you. ?

    Andy felt a surge of relief. ? And I David Andrew Fitzwilliam, commonly known as Andy will join with you Fleur. ?

    * * *

    It took the Cunning Dolphin Adventurer company three days to reach the Winter Wolf dungeon. Robin spent two days running limited delves to test his weaker people and to habituate his marinesto dungeon delving. Then he collected a team of himself and three of his best tiger ¡®folk, Faaron and Crazy Lou and headed in himself.

    ANS 28 did her best but the adventurers had figured out how to handle her wolves, and the snow didn¡¯t seem to affect the tigers. Briarthorn did his best but the adventurers were just too powerful. He admitted that the goblins he had been told to recommend wouldn¡¯t have lasted as long as the wolves.

    Then the unstoppable adventurers moved warily into their heart chamber and their leader nodded politely to the core before setting about demolishing their dire wolf final boss. While the fight was raging Briarthorn heard a giggle behind him and felt a blade prick him in his lower back. He stiffened with fright.

    ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry, we don¡¯t want to hurt you, either of you. Mother wouldn¡¯t like it. Well I suspect she wouldn¡¯t really care you understand, it¡¯s just that she needs your friend and partner to wake up.¡±

    Briarthorn glanced behind him and saw the small beastman that the others called Crazy Lou. ¡°Err, why do they call you Crazy? You don¡¯t seem crazy.¡±

    ¡°Oh but I am mad. I like to be on my own and for a Meerkat that isn¡¯t sane yanno.¡±

    When the fight was over Robin produced the crystal he had been given and touched it to the Tourmaline that was ANS 28.

    ANS 28 had watched incuriously as the tiger man had placed a crystal against her, Then she had a powerful obnoxious girl rummaging around in her mind. It hurt!

    Mary noted the almost total lack of willpower and decided to cheat, it was a matter of moments to extend a scrap of her domain through this dungeon''s and sent it out a few hundred meters to coalesce her influence in a small hollow. Then she withdrew into herself and proceeded with her task.

    ANS 28 felt the girl do something and it was as if a dam broke. Her memories came rushing back and everything spilled out and poured down a bond she hadn¡¯t been aware off. Her memories made the girl who had invaded her mind recoil in disgust and pull out. She, Linny Thomas was alone in her head again, except that she had two heads, brains whatever.

    Mary tried to reach Robin who was holding the crystal, and to her surprise she succeeded. The crystal had been changed in some way. ? Robin, good job. Time to leave, pass my congratulations to your squad. Oh, and please tell Linny that a paladin of Hel-Arlizzy will be coming around soon should she have any problems. ?

    * * *

    In a nice apartment in Bismark North Dakota Tiny Baczkowski watched as his latest girlfriend injected herself with some recently purchased opium. He grinned as he anticipated the rush, he was just reaching for the syringe when Linny jerked and went into some kind of fit before falling to the floor.

    He gathered up all the drugs and dumped them in a shopping bag before heading for the door. He stopped, grabbed Linny¡¯s phone with a handkerchief and called emergency services.

    ¡°Yeah, Yeah, this girl just mainlined opium and had a violent fit, she¡¯s out cold on the floor. I¡¯m leaving the door unlocked and the address is...¡±

    Tiny dropped the phone and fled, as he passed a fence he threw the bag with the drugs into the yard and kept going not even seeing the sign on the gate ¨C Stateside Junior School.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    The Frost king decided to put his plan into action. He crossed the dimensions and descended on the world Azurea had described, he set his sights on the vaguely hourglass shaped double continent and settled his regard on the northern continent. Yes Azurea was correct. Many of these beings studied weather and its effects on the world.

    So... who to pick...

    The Frost King selected his fifty experts and started to collect them. Unlike Azurea he didn¡¯t bother to leave anything behind to keep his victims alive.

    Less than twenty seconds after he arrived the Frost King was ready to leave with his booty. Then a much exasperated god smote him with the strength of over two billion loyal worshipers and The Frost king was shattered and the shards that remained fled.

    The remnants of the Frost King was able to escape because the local god showing his compassion was restoring the souls of his followers and those who had lapsed but not fallen into another god¡¯s hands.

    The fragment¡¯s of the Frost king fell onto Parthia, the majority assembled themselves in his fortress under the north pole still clutching three hard won souls. He called on Azurea for help and together they planted the unfortunate kidnapped souls around the limits of the northern ice cap.

    The remaining fragments of the Frost King fell onto the South Pole and coalesced. Ice Heart was born and he planted the two souls he held well inside the limits of the southern ice cap.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary¡¯s fish barbeque was a success as usual and her guests ate a surprising amount and left later in the afternoon with a couple of fish Mary had caught after lunch.

    Monday meant a return to school and a very strange conversation with Julian Sottomayor. Mary wasn¡¯t sure what had it all meant as Sottomayor was able to talk rings round her. She suspected someone he knew wanted a sex change but... She decided to forget it as, after all it was nothing to do with her.

    Then the school nurse wanted to talk to her. It would seem that she had been at Meier¡¯s party and wanted to know how she could cure blindness.

    Mary sighed, ¡°I can¡¯t, Frank had been blinded by the flames, I was able to... jumpstart some regeneration. Frank¡¯s eyes worked, regrowing them meant he could see. Someone who is blind, even if you regrow the eyes, they will still have the faults that their DNA thinks they should have so... It wouldn¡¯t work.¡±

    She finally managed to get away and headed home. She desperately needed an early night.

 Chapter 56

    Mary guided Robin to the scrap of domain she had created and withdrew it into the crystal, she could see it wouldn¡¯t last but she urged him to head south. After six hours of skirting the mountains and within sight of a large village she ordered Robin to stop and place the crystal against a nearby cliff face.

    She was only just able to transfer her claim, and if it had not been for the two sea humans in Robin¡¯s company she would have failed. She basically refused to fail them. By evening Mary had a small cave that was basically a deepish pool of sea water with a few innocuous fish for her folk to catch and snack on.

    ? Thank you all, you did brilliantly, and if your next target also has a link to Earth I¡¯m going to have words with old scaly tail. I advise against going back to the Winter Wolf dungeon as I suspect it¡¯s going to get very strange unless Briarthorn is stronger willed than he appeared. Linny is not to be trusted. ?

    ¡°Yes Mother.¡± Chorused all her folk to the surprise of the three new recruits.

    Mary created three new caverns and then she added her portal with the usual Mock Turtle decoration. Robin, the dwarf and Faaron walked over to the village to report the new dungeon.

    While the village headman was making plans to deal with the hoped for influx of rich adventurers; the villagers discovered that Faaron was not just some adventuring cleric but a fully fledged pukka priest. So he was persuaded to officiate at a service in the village¡¯s unaffiliated shrine.

    Then he had to officiate and legitimise all the little and not so little things that had come up since the last priest had passed through. The glut of marriages, baptisms, blessings and corresponding paperwork were not what he had expected when he had jumped at the chance to join Robin for adventure. He completely lost interest in starting a bar brawl, he now knew these people too well. And he¡¯d levelled up!

    Mary meanwhile was relaxing after having force fed herself with her knowledge and experience of genetic engineering and creation. She had sensed that the other her was now ready and her other core was ready to receive and correctly store the data. Additionally, she could sense that the other her had been in the presence of a minor god with links to the sea. Life was good!

    Then she diverted herself by playing about with ferrets the viscount had sent her some time back. Getting to grow until they massed as much as a mid sized dog was not difficult, getting them gaining the same kind of mastery of water as an otter was more challenging. Then she boosted their intelligence to create some very bright creatures. Next she riddled the caves with ferret ways and added a dozen of the things to the caves.

    Toormak Rockhead had been thinking, this company was surprisingly unorthodox. The twins had come along quickly and were no longer a drag on the company, but they were being trained as soldiers not adventurers! And soldiers as his people understood soldiers. He was now certain that the boss wasn¡¯t Captain Robin. He had to have a talk with the captain as he had more than a few doubts to clear up.

    He was enjoying a surprisingly satisfying breakfast when Robin showed up.

    ¡°Cap? Can I have a word please? I have a few doubts to clear up.¡±

    Robin grabbed the trencher that the innkeeper¡¯s wife was offering him and seated himself at the dwarf¡¯s table. ¡°I wondered when this would come up, ask away.¡±

    ¡°You aren¡¯t the true leader are you? Also are you part of a temple army? And where did you lot learn how to train true disciplined soldiers?¡±

    Robin huffed a laugh, then he polished off a sausage and a couple of eggs before answering. ¡°We work for Mother, Mother is the consort and not a god ¨C yet. Mother taught us, and we¡¯re Marines!¡±

    Toormak just looked at the big tiger man, drained his tankard and tried again. ¡°Who or what is Mother?¡±

    Robin sat straighter. ¡°Mother is our mother, she is also Ocidon¡¯s consort though knowing her, I suspect she hasn¡¯t realized that yet. Mary Silvestre is the intelligence behind Blue Lagoon Dungeon and she is Mother. And we all Love her for she truly cares for all her ¡®folk whether they have legs, tentacles or flippers.¡±

    Toormak blinked, ¡°You mean we¡¯re working for a dungeon. Wait a minute, I¡¯ve heard of Blue Lagoon but as a new country that¡¯s making war on the pirates.¡±

    Robin grinned and nodded, ¡°Mother really despises pirates, and we cut Vortexius Blackbeard down to size and helped kick him off the seas and ocean of Parthia. So, are you sticking with us or do want to bail? We¡¯re heading to the Highmark Peaks next, I suspect you¡¯ll be very useful there.¡±

    ¡°If I had any sense I would bail, but I didn¡¯t get called Rockhead for no reason. No I¡¯ll hang around.¡±

    * * *

    Taron the Ravager and his veterans stood in front of the unnamed dungeon. Taron stepped into the first chamber and proclaimed: ¡°The Adventurer¡¯s Guild has ordered us to reevaluate this dungeon. Be aware that we wish no harm to the core or its controlling intelligence.¡±Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    ¡°I¡¯ve always found that habit of yours a bit silly Taron, why bother it¡¯s not as if a collection of caves and monsters will understand you.¡±

    ¡°Honestly Zandrox, how you can have gone through so many dungeons and not realized that after a certain point they all wake and become aware. I suspect this one has and that¡¯s why it changed.¡±

    In his heart chamber Andy examined the entrance of his domain and acknowledged that there was no way he could stop that band. Fleur agreed but they did not despair and hoped the old warrior was telling the truth. The changes Andy had made did sort of mandate an inspection but why such a strong group.

    By the time Taron and his team was clearing the third level Andy and Fleur knew that they were only an addendum to the veterans true test. They were here to evaluate Mary¡¯s portal network, though they still thought it was just a dungeon.

    ? Withdraw and try to survive, I will need you and your experience more than ever after this fiasco, and you too Fleur. ?

    The Badger folk nodded and prepared their crossbows.

    Taron cursed as he dodged yet another slime that dropped from a ceiling trap. This little dungeon had some unexpected twists, and he had never come across a dungeon that spawned slimes to only use them in traps.

    The sixth level had been a little bare and unfinished. Clearly the dungeon hadn¡¯t finished with its reorganisation. Taron was fascinated, it was a unique experience to see a level still under development.

    Then it was time for the final chamber and they would evaluate the core and withdraw.

    ¡°Well, one final chamber then we¡¯re done bar the report. A nice little dungeon miles better than it used to be. The rewards are still a little basic but I¡¯ve seen signs that the dungeon is working on them too. The slimes are a pain but not excessive.¡±

    ? Show your worth, but don¡¯t kill any of them if possible. ?

    ¡°You sure boss? We¡¯ve been watching and we could take them out. They¡¯re too cocksure.¡± Inquired the badger guard captain.

    Fleur looked at the badgers wide eyed, ¡°how?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re warriors, they sorta work together. Mother¡¯s gonna tear them apart. We¡¯re soldiers, we work together. If there were another seven of us nothing could touch the boss.¡±

    ? Show your worth, then fall back. ?

    ¡°¡¯K boss.¡±

    Fingers Caracaa threw open the door and dove to the right, and went down with an arbalest bolt in her thigh. Zandrox charged through the door and fell back when a ballista bolt punched through his breastplate, torso and backplate before burying itself in Jiira the healer.

    A voice roared in the heart chamber. ¡°Hold, form the shield wall, I think we have proved our point like the boss ordered.¡±

    Taron poured two healing potions into their healer and carefully drew the large square headed iron bolt from Jiira. Then Jiira healed Zaandrox while Fingers crawled out of the room to take her turn at being healed.

    Taron squared his shoulders and strode into the dungeon¡¯s heart room. It was about one hundred meters long and was guarded by badger folk. This was the third dungeon he had heard of with them. The dungeon did nothing, and he could see a dungeon pixie hiding behind the badgers.

    Technically they had won. He was able to inspect the core in its alcove behind steel bars. It flickered nervously but with far more life and fire than had been mentioned in the previous reports. Also the companion had been a whisp.

    He nodded thanks to the core and strode out. Artillery, the damn thing had artillery defending it¡¯s heart chamber.

    * * * INTERLUDE * * *

    Tuesday and the tunnel linking her no longer separated domain was done, all her ¡®folk had access to the sea. Now she needed to get them some transport.

    After a turbulent morning, and having fielded several awkward questions she retired to the library for a bit of peace. ¡®Got a second me, getting¡¯ overwhelmed with questions on manipulatin¡¯ DNA. Any help would be welcome, got space in my core. Pretty please.¡¯

    Mary could feel amusement and glee bubble up in the back of her mind. ¡®Welcome me to the most fun goin¡¯. Here you go me, sorted by race an¡¯ changes. Start with the Sea Humans.¡¯

    Mary felt herself separate again with a distinct prolonged giggle. She felt a stream of data stream through her brain and into her core. This lasted for almost fifteen minutes. Her core actually felt heavier, she looked down and her eyes widened in surprise. Her core had grown by a third. She grabbed a plastic ruler from the desk and used it.

    ¡®I can¡¯t let anyone see you, an oval blue white diamond two centimetres by three! Now what did I tell me to check, oh yes sea humans...¡¯ Mary sat back in her chair and gazed at the ceiling stunned as the experience of knowing her islanders down to their very cells and then changing them, creating a new species sank into her being. ¡®Oh wow!¡¯ Her phone¡¯s alarm buzzed and she awoke from her stupor and headed back to her classes.

    She was still trying to fully absorb all the knowledge and experience that was so fundamentally hers as she walked out to get her jeep and head home. Mary chuckled, there in front of her stood a line of assorted transport options, old junkers rubbed shoulders with an assortment of newer cars, and right next to her Jeep a bright pink Chevrolet Bolt.

    There were two people waiting for her, it looked like Julian Sottomayor and a close relative.

    Julian introduced his older brother Dennis and looking apologetic and embarrassed asked her if she¡¯d follow them home and lead Dennis though the assimilation process.

    ¡°Honestly, it¡¯s simple if you just want one of the standard races,¡± Mary exclaimed in exasperation. ¡°But, ¡®K fine, lead on.¡±

    She was startled when the brothers got into the pink miniature and took of with a muted whine. Mary followed, feeling very conspicuous. The Sottomayors were obviously very rich if the mansion they led her to was any indication.

    She met their ¨C obviously embarrassed ¨C parents and fascinated kid brother who just looked and stared.

    They explained, and explained, the parents were ok with it... ¡®honestly, why do they think I care, it¡¯s not as I know him after all.¡¯

    When a thoroughly exasperated Mary left the whole family had been integrated and Denis was Denise.

    ¡®Beep! Two hours, I could have been fishin¡¯ or updatin¡¯ my thesis for doc Cas. ¡®Stead I was listnin¡¯ to a lot of hand wringin¡¯ and excuses!¡¯

    And when she finally got home there were a couple of naval officers waiting for her with her parents. It felt weird to have two mothers in the same room chatting and getting along like a house on fire.

 A Collection of Interludes â€“ No Mary in this Chapter

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Andy and Fleur watched the evaluation group head out of their domain. Fleur licked her lips nervously, ? That was scary Andy, no that was terrifying, and don¡¯t ever tell your defenders not to fight ever again. ? Fleur looked at the boss badger, ? I think we should name him after we reset our dungeon, then summon a few more and if possible a mage. ?

    ? Yes dear, why a mage? ?

    Fleur blushed, ? Defensive magics, to give them time to act when a mage heavy group comes visiting. ?

    Andy smiled to himself as he observed his new companion and relished Fleur¡¯s energy and seemingly instinctive identification with him and their future. So he opened his still scant monster files and shared them with his determined little dungeon pixie. He noted with some surprise that the files relating to the ferret had a second option available, and the one for the snake had three. A quick query to the System left him very thoughtful.

    Fleur was both happy and a bit disappointed at the possibilities available to them. ? Why so few creatures? And why are so many of the ones you do have so ¨C dangerous? ?

    ? I was surprised myself. Fleur, the system indicated that as I am ¨C allied ¨C to Blue Lagoon and I bought those templates from her, that I would benefit from any advances she makes to them. Thus the big ferrets and the multitude of snakes, I only bought the basic poisonous one, and now... ?

    Fleur looked at the glowing core and tried to consider the pros and cons of such a link. ? I think we need her for now, especially if we¡¯re going to get upgraded monsters. What puzzles me is that none of those evolved monsters needs a dungeon¡¯s domain to exist. ?

    ? Have you really looked at the blueprints for the Badger and Meerkat folk? The Mary on Earth is studying all about DNA. I doubt anyone without that specialised knowledge will be able to do what she can anytime soon. Dave is looking into some Internet courses for our benefit. ?

    Fleur slowly sank to the floor and settled cross-legged as she studied. ? Wait, what... Earth? Dave? What! ?

    And so Andy and Fleur resumed getting to know one another, something the Veterans had interrupted.

    They both cooperated as they populated the first three floors adding a bit of variety and a few new traps. Then they had to wait to build up the manna needed to continue with their task.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Linny woke in a hospital bed, she was suffering from the first stages of withdrawal and looked about frantically, she had to get home and raid her stash. She dismissed the weird memories that presented themselves as irrelevant. Just a bad trip.

    She struggled weakly as a nurse pushed her back into her bed. The presence of the police woman served to sober her and focus her attention. There was something scary about what she was saying though only a few parts stuck in her head.

    ¡°... Under arrest ... fingerprints on .... drugs found .... school .... anything you may say ...¡±

    Linny was desperate... maybe if she sounded crazy... so she started telling the uniformed bitch about everything she remembered about her bad trip.

    * * *

    Linny Thomas the dungeon recoiled from the memories she was getting from her other self, yes she¡¯d been heavily into weed and she had done some coke at parties but... but this was scary and horrifying. Then she felt Briarthorn¡¯s comforting presence comforting and supporting her. Slowly she came to terms with her situation. Maybe she could save her other self even if she didn¡¯t like who she had become. No wonder that other girl ¨C no dungeon had recoiled when her memories had come back.

    Briarthorn felt hopeful, Linny was still pliable and if he was careful she could still become a dungeon to be proud off. He felt that having a responsive dungeon could only be an advantage. The problem was the wreck his companion had become back on her home planet. If they could redeem her well and good. If not then maybe it would be possible to sever the link.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ? Shit! She¡¯s going to prison, the cops have the goods on her. That boyfriend she found did her no favour by throwing that bag of drugs in the school¡¯s playground. Oh well, that will complicate things. Briarthorn what did that hell bitch¡¯s tiger man mean by a paladin of Hel-Arlizzy? And do you have any idea who she might be? ?

    Briarthorn considered briefly and decided that the truth wouldn¡¯t hurt, it might even help. ¡°Hel-Arlizzy was the god of dungeons before the high gods took that post from him and gave it to Azurea. I suspect that he is finally trying to regain his position. Azurea must have made a mistake that¡¯s given him a chance. A paladin is a God¡¯s acknowledged champion. As for the dungeon who acted so untraditionally and with such contempt for the adventurer¡¯s guild; I honestly don¡¯t know. She has to be one of the Godlike dungeons. That crystal she used reeked of divine manna, manna she was manipulating with ease.¡±

    ? Well lets fix up our challenges and defences, then will you help me to see if I can do something about that other Linny. Funny I think we are diverging, it¡¯s like I ¨C we will end up two different people. And I think, feel that might be good for one or both of us. How many Godlike dungeons are there? ?

    ¡°Of course I¡¯ll help. But you do realize we might be forced to sever your soul link if nothing works. As it stands she can only weaken you. There are four Godlike¡¯s,¡± Briarthorn consulted the System again and continued, ¡°they are Skylark Meadows who¡¯s intelligence is named Kai Lung, Hell Pit aka Steel Wolf, Ice Crags with Queenie, and Blue Lagoon with Mary Silvestre¡±.

    * * *

    Tiny Baczkowski had been picked up when his fingerprints had turned up on the bag of drugs that had been handed in by one of the students of the Stateside Junior School.

    Tiny was desperate, this was his third arrest for possession and distribution of drugs. So he threw his girlfriend to the wolves and went for a plea bargain. He consoled himself with the thought that this would be Linny¡¯s first arrest for distribution and anyway it really was Linny who had procured the heroin and was selling it. He knew enough about Linny¡¯s business to seal her fate and set hounds sniffing after a couple of rather big ruthless fish.

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    Dave looked at Maddy again as they waited in the queue for the ferry to Calais. The tactic had worked with Mary, and they hoped it would help with Markus. They were fairly sure Elizabeth Dreyfus in Queensland, Australia was also one of their exclusive number, just like Markus and Mary, but they wanted to be sure. Maybe after they spoke to Markus they¡¯d take a trip to Oz.

    Markus meanwhile had thrashed everything out with his immediate family, he was only believed because of the collaboration granted by the System as it ¨C helpfully ¨C tried to get Markus and his clan settled so that Markus could put down roots and establish his dungeon.

    His Brother Lutz had come for the weekend and was now back in his bank in London. His girlfriend however was now his ex girlfriend. Thankfully his little sister¡¯s best friend had not become an Imp of the Perverse. Asa had managed to persuade Pia to say no to that. It certainly didn¡¯t help that Pia¡¯s father was now calling her one.

    So far, Lutz was satisfied and made his choice. Personally Markus thought that he was going to regret choosing Seer. His mother had jumped on Hausfrau and though he didn¡¯t understand it suited her and she was more assertive and cheerful than ever before. As for his father, he was still waffling.

    As for Asa, he shuddered to think what the System intended when it suggested Weinprinzessin.

    So, all things considered the phone call from the English couple came as a welcome relief. Once they were all settled around his parent¡¯s dining table. The conversation started to get strange as they were finishing the Blumenkohlsuppe. It became obvious that their situation was similar but not the same and that two different worlds were involved. Asa took advantage of the adult¡¯s distraction to discard her carrots and peas and grab a second thick slice of Falscher Hase and another dose of Rotkohl.

    They shared ideas and experiences. Dave and Maddy were worried at the news that Diavlo had died and finally over the sweet they told the Wrangels about Mary, both Marys.

    As for Asa, well she didn¡¯t want her ice cream, which worried her mother.

    * * * INTERLUDE 4 * * *

    Hell¡¯s Mouth contemplated his domain with satisfaction. His dungeon was now firmly established. He still had those miserable goblins on his first few levels, He had invited a tribe of desert orcs to establish themselves on the next to levels. Then he had skeletons and zombies. A few ghouls and death knights down to his eighth level which he had set up to look like his final level.

    He and Arbogar had summoned a succubus and sent her hunting and Dokratus was the result. Yvguhhvdhuj had fulfilled her orders to perfection, a simpleminded soul with an affinity to darkness. They had placed him in another prepared gem and created a bound dungeon core to lord it over the first eight levels of his dungeon.

    Dokratus was their faithful slave, and he lacked the intelligence, and the will to cause trouble.

    Monsters ready, treasure ready, and generous. And most important of all, their decoy was ready and in place.

    Below the eighth level, well lets just say that the demons and undead grew thicker and more powerful and if discovered would prove problematic.

    So far they¡¯d just killed anyone who found them, now that was going to change. Hell¡¯s Mouth wanted a dungeon town. He and Arbogar had plans. It would take decades but they would be a major power for evil again.

    Hell¡¯s Mouth had grandiose dreams of a demon empire, with himself as ruler and Arbogar as his right hand wraith.

 Chapter 57

    ? Um... Mary, sorry to disturb you but I got tricked into a bet. Um, could you please add a room or cave to one of your Mock Turtle dungeons with no more than one monster type and maybe some non hostile vegetation. Um... please make it challenging. ?

    ? Bettin¡¯ Trish? ¡®K, I¡¯ll think of somethin¡¯. ?

    Mary wondered which of her portals to pick and finally decided to use the one across the valley from Andy. She opened out a large cavern behind the current entrance hall and created a new room to house the portal on the far side of the new cave. Then she filled it with horsetails, cycads, Cycadeoidea and pines before installing a herd of twenty Deinonychus.

    ? Hey Trish, cave¡¯s ready. Hope you win your bet. ?

    * * *

    Taron the Ravager and his Veterans were seated around their camp table while they discussed the results of their evaluation. They agreed that with a little care it was still an excellent starter dungeon, at least for the first two levels. And that, except for the dungeon¡¯s heart chamber it was not too challenging.

    They started the report with the statement. Beware of artillery, this dungeon has awakened and is on its second companion. Then they added their findings and recommendations. They signed and sealed the report and handed it to runner that had been supplied by the guild that had asked them to do the survey.

    The Mock Turtle dungeon had changed, it now had an entrance into a large, nay huge brightly lit cavern covered with dense vegetation. They ventured in cautiously and soon ran into feather covered monsters that seemed to be some kind of cross between reptiles and birds. The upright claws on their hind feet were vicious.

    They were able to clear this cavern without too much difficulty though Jiira had a lot of work. Then they found the portal. Having been warned what to expect they again cleared the cavern though the combination of treacherous footing, melee attackers, the giant crabs and shooters, the fish made it tricky.

    They pushed on and managed to clear another cavern, their leg armour being the key to their success. After the third room they withdrew to rest, make plans and evaluate their treasure.

    Fingers grumbled, ¡°we¡¯re missing out, I know we missed valuable herbs in there, just because they¡¯re all so ¨C strange, or should that be rare.¡±

    * * *

    Trisha was bouncing with glee, ¡°Hey Mary, we won that bet, Marigold owes us a favour. We can send other you a companion if she wants one.¡±

    ? We is it? And where can I find another you? ?

    Mary watched Trisha fumble for an answer before taking pity on her friend.

    ? Do you think we will have to stick big arrows in our mock dungeon saying ¡®Treasure!¡¯ for your average delver? ?Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    ¡°Um, no, that wouldn¡¯t be nice. They¡¯ll just have to learn,¡± Trisha answered.

    * * *

    Robin led his company back to the dungeon and they traversed the portal, tramped through six rooms of the mock dungeon and used the portal to exit near the dungeon of Heaven¡¯s Belt. They headed north and reached the sea two days later.

    They boarded a coaster heading east and on agreeing to help with defence if needed got a nice discount.

    The coaster was slow and stopped at nearly every port or harbour along the coast so it was over two weeks later before they parted company with it.

    They followed a small river into the mountains and stopped in a slightly enlarged village. There were a small number of obviously new buildings. An inn, a small alchemists shop and a small single storey building that proclaimed itself the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.

    Just to be polite Robin checked in with the guild and learned what he could before retiring to the inn.

    They visited the dungeon in the morning, and Robin sent in small groups to test the dungeon and his recruits. The twins were coming along nicely and had no trouble with the lizardmen. He even picked up a couple of new recruits when they realised that his company was actually training their lower levelled members. The rogue didn¡¯t appreciate the discipline Robin insisted on but Seela the illusionist was happy to comply having despaired of finding a group to adventure with, illusionists not generally being regarded as desirable.

    Deep in the dungeon Fleabite the Imp was worried, the adventurer¡¯s company had been hanging around for three days and the big tiger man was good. Even the illusionist was becoming useful to the company. If the big wanted there was nothing to stop him reaching the core and ANS 39 had become sort of a friend.

    * * * INTERLUDE * * *

    After a bit of a amicable discussion Mary realized that the officer¡¯s principal interest was in some attributes her jeep had manifested recently. Attributes she hadn¡¯t even been aware of. As her jeep was parked in her domain she checked the current state of the enchantments it possessed. She was able to discern enchantments to nullify vision, sound, affecting silent running and sonar and radar.

    She just sat there for a minute or so before replying. How to do this without admitting she mostly hadn¡¯t a clue as to how her jeep seemed to be using the manna she kept giving him. This time thankfully the desired enchantments were at the top and hadn¡¯t embedded themselves fully.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to spend my time enchantin¡¯ your stuff, but if you can find me some engineerin¡¯ officers, preferably ones who haven¡¯t chosen a class, and get them to choose some variation of enchanter. I should be able to teach them. I suspect they will have to level up a few times before being capable of some of these enchantments but. Yeah I¡¯m certain it¡¯s doable.¡±

    ¡°Can you prove that you can do this, there¡¯s a destroyer in Pearl we could show you.¡±

    Mary glanced at her parents, ¡°tempin¡¯ as that is, there¡¯s no way I could enchant somethin¡¯ that big on my own. Hmm... maybe a patrol boat or a small frigate? Though the frigate might be pushin¡¯ it.¡±

    She watched as the naval officers suppressed their excitement and decided to offer something more.

    ¡°Unnerstand that ¡®cordin¡¯ to the System I¡¯m a Oceanic Ranger subclass Enchanter, so for me enchantin¡¯ is secondary at best. If you can get someone who is primarily an enchanter, they would be better at this kinda thing. Also could promise not to teach anyone not cleared by the government the anti radar and anti vision enchantments.¡±

    ¡°A promise wouldn¡¯t really be sufficient Mary. We would require at the very least a non disclosure agreement.¡±

    ¡°Um, ¡®K. But if you find a mage with the right spell, he could ensure a promise was magically bindin¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Can you do that? Is such a thing truly possible.¡±

    ¡°Me? No not a mage but ¡®cordin¡¯ to the System, yeah it¡¯s possible.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for talking to us. How would you all like to visit Pearl this weekend courtesy of the Navy.¡±

    Mary glanced at her mother, then her father.

    ¡°Sounds interesting, We¡¯ll do that,¡± said her father.

 Chapter 58

    Mary studied the map of the seas around her domain, she focused on the collection of dangerous rocky shoals and sand bars to the south. She figured that with a little work she turn that hazard to navigation into another atoll fringed lagoon or even a sizable island.

    Her core pulsed again and she felt overfull. Her expeditionary forces were coming home loaded with manna from the destruction of all those temples and shrines of Blackbeard¡¯s. If this was her share Ocidon must have hit the jackpot. She just had to use that manna urgently, the team that sacked Blackbeard¡¯s high temple was due any day now.

    How to... yes... that would work. She didn¡¯t want to swallow New Town in her domain so she would have to move to the southern boundary of her domain. Other me walked around with their other core around her neck. Mmm yesss... that was another possibility to consider.

    Setting her core on a gold chain was the work of seconds. Now as for her avatar... her human avatar. Upgrade to sea human, done, add some swim bladders, so increase her chest by three centimetres, that will give more than enough space, them make it more resistant against pressure.

    Two hours later Mary was in her upgraded avatar wearing the collar with her core around her neck and heading south following the sea bed and escorted by four of Pete¡¯s kids riding sea wyverns, six of her big snakes and a few schools of her barracuda. When they got deep enough they were joined by a dozen of her rarely seen giant squid.

    The trip was slower than it could have been because Mary was enjoying the scenery. As she advanced she gathered more of her patrols and swept into her soft zone. Then at the edge of her domain she settled on the seabed and concentrated expanding her domain explosively, feeling relief as she expanded, using the last of her normal manna and switching to all that divine manna that she had gained from Blackbeard¡¯s defeat.

    Mary¡¯s avatar smiled in relief as she felt her domain sweep over the reefs and sand bars, it was better than she had hoped and it felt good to have used most of her manna. Her domain was once again circular though the diameter had virtually doubled.

    She examined Gerald the chief of her squid clan. She could see how a kraken of legend could be evolved from his people, but no... tempting as the idea might be she had no need for a kraken and something that big would be a constant drain on her manna.

    So now. She could sense other her was asleep, so she collected more of the divine manna that she still had in excess and fed it into her other core. She and her cores worked in concert and upgraded themselves and shared their stores of manna. There was a delay as manna was consumed unexpectedly but after about an hour the two cores were identical in content and abilities, and ¨C oops ¨C so were the two Marys¡¯ avatars.

    Mary returned to her usual resting place in her lagoon just in time to receive yet more triumphant members of her expeditionary forces. Once again she was overfull and her cores linked and updated themselves, growing and balancing out the charges.

    She prepared herself for some major island building so as to have something to use the manna from the High Temple. She was actually getting scared at just how much more was coming her way on the morrow.

    ? Hey Trish what was that bet you won, and when did you make it? ?

    ? Ooo... Mary, please leave me alone, my head hurts. What have you been doing. ?

    ? Burning manna. I was getting overfull. Trish I think you¡¯ll be surprised next time you check our messages. But about this bet? ?

    ? Marigold wanted to know what we were doing opening doors all over the place. I don¡¯t really know why you are doing it so I fudged and thus the bet. I bet that any chamber you created would be deadly even if we restricted your options. Marigold agreed, just one land monster type, and not a swarm. And you came up with those dinosaur things. Oh my head. ?If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Trisha dug through the System messages. Her headache forgotten she stared open mouthed for a minute before managing a strangled ¡®yes¡¯. She felt herself change and her headache vanished.

    * * *

    Fleabite the Imp watched as the big Tigerman moved into his dungeon. Poor ANS 39 did his best but thanks to the way Azurea had lobotomised his mind all the ideas had to come from him and he was an Imp not a dungeon. He just didn¡¯t have the right instincts for the job.

    The invaders moved through their dungeon like a hot knife through butter and were soon in the heart room. Fleabite watched from his alcove as the Tigerman produced an enchanted crystal that was frankly scary. It reeked of dungeon.

    When the Tigerman moved to touch his crystal to touch ANS 39¡¯s core something snapped in Fleabite. He came flying out of his hide screaming, ¡°don¡¯t hurt him! He¡¯s hurt enough as it is, please leave us alone.¡±

    Robin chuckled, ¡°Nice to see one of you lot with the guts to act. Don¡¯t worry, Mother wants to wake your friend up. To fix him.¡±

    Lara moved like lightning and grabbed the imp with water sheathed hands. ¡°Let the captain work, Mother¡¯ll release his mind. Then we¡¯ll see if she likes him or not.¡±

    Robin huffed another laugh and touched the crystal to ANS 39¡¯s emerald. Mary reached through the crystal, ANS 39 was pitiful, there was so little of the person present that she found herself having to reinforce parts of his core before she dared tackle the barrier holding the personality and memories prisoner.

    Fleabite shuddered despite feeling some vague stirrings of hope as a strange dungeon fixed the various flaws in the core that he had been unable to fix. Then he saw the invading dungeon tackle Azurea¡¯s barrier. The barrier crumbled in seconds and his partner awoke scared. He dove in with reassurances feeling joy as for the first time ever he met and merged with his true partner. The memories of Earth were strange and they merged and separated.

    ? Bonjour Marcel, comment ca va? ?

    Marcel Voclain, member of Les R¨¦publicains and d¨¦put¨¦ of the National Assembly was enjoying himself with an attractive and ambitious young lady when his soul link came fully alive. Bea was frightened, the last thing she wanted was for the old man to have a fit and die on her. Especially before he had obtained that posting in Brussels he had promised her.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    The Frost King gazed out on his reduced domain; he had lost the Southern Ice fields to ¨C himself. A new god, a god that had claimed most of the arrogance and certitude that had been his, theirs.

    He checked his dearly brought acquisitions and despaired. They were, all three politicians, two believed blindly that planets needed to be cold. And with the arrogance he had formerly possessed gone he could see that this was not necessarily the case. Something had to be done to stabilize his ice fields or there would be no one to worship him.

    Well the dungeons would not cause him any problems, though one of them worried him, he had feched a Satanist to Parthia where demons existed even if Satan didn¡¯t. Anyway without help, none of the three would gain enough power to be a hindrance.

    * * *

    Ice Heart gazed upon his domain and found it good if limited. He had lost the north, but then, he had also lost the doubts and uncertainties that had been plaguing him.

    He examined his prizes, they seemed unhappy but that was the lot of lesser beings. They were both female, a pity that. Men were stronger after all, and the natural leaders. Oh well, at least they would more prone to following his orders.

    He noted with satisfaction that the two former witches, or wiccans were both worried about planets getting warmer and over population. They should be happy to help him crush and destroy all life under his glaciers.

    As for locations, yes he was satisfied, the first on the ice pack near that small island buried under the ice and the other on the ice field above the buried ruins of Veldarian the former capital or the former realm of the southern wood elves.

    * * *

    Rachel Daniels woke after a horrible nightmare. She had been killed by a god, a god from another world and now she was some kind of jewel. A small blue faceted gem lying in the ice and snow with this urgent desire to get underground, but to leave a hole to the surface. Almost instinctively she formed a small pocket in the ice she was resting on and sank from sight. She felt that she was doomed, she needed to feed and there was nothing alive within reach.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary woke feeling ¨C different ¨C changed. Again.

    She sat down to breakfast with her mother. ¡°What do you think I should ask the government for enchantin¡¯ whatever it is they want. Think we can get them to patent the enchantments and pay us royalties?¡±

    ¡°Pay you royalties dear. And that¡¯s probably the best option. As for this weekend, charge high. Unless you want to become their enchanter.

    ¡°Tell you what, I¡¯ll have a word with your father. Now off to school or you¡¯ll be late.¡±

    At least she wasn¡¯t the centre of attention any more. The news of the elder Sottomayor had taken centre stage.

 Chapter 59

    Captain Dom-aella knocked on the ambassador¡¯s door.

    ¡°Enter!¡±

    The captain entered and bowed. ¡°We should be in sight of the islands soon, is there anything you wish us to do?¡±

    ¡°Nothing beyond ensuring that the empire¡¯s ensign is flying over the ambassadorial flag.¡±

    ¡°Sir!¡± snapped out Captain Dom-aella and left the cabin closing the door as she left.

    * * *

    Mary watched as the obvious warship entered her newly expanded domain and determined that it was most likely on a diplomatic mission. When the ship broke out the ensign on the Luvarian Empire over a diplomatic flag she knew she had to prepare for visitors. So considering it was in her domain she did some spying to confirm appearances.

    ? Trish we got visitors comin¡¯, an embassy from the Luvarian Empire. ?

    ? Drina, go tell Danilus Oakborn that an embassy from the Luvarian Empire will be arriving at Silverton tomorrow early, probably just after dawn. Then tell Rafael Twiceborn and mayor Jaasoon Sunhigh. And your parents that you will of course be representin¡¯ me to the Emperor¡¯s third cousin the ambassador. ?

    Alesandrinna the Voice did her assigned rounds in the temple fort sowing consternation in her wake and then visited Silverton where she left satisfaction.

    Viriaathos and Rhondaa smiled as their daughter called to them. ¡°Mary asked me to tell you that I will be representing her to the ambassador who is the Emperor¡¯s third cousin tomorrow.¡±

    Rhondaa regarded her daughter standing there in her bare feet dressed in a damp swimming costume under a stained beach robe. She felt faint as she tried to remember what Drina had in her wardrobe.

    ¡°Which Emperor dear heart?¡± asked Viriaathos.

    ¡°The Emperor of the Luvarian Empire,¡± replied Drina with satisfaction.

    ¡°When tomorrow?¡± asked her mother.

    ¡°Dawn.¡±

    Rhondaa grabbed her daughter and headed for their rooms followed by Viriaathos who was also feeling stunned. The Luvarian Empire was one of the more powerful states in the South.

    A bewildered Drina found herself being ordered to bathe and wash her hair while her frantic mother dug out long unused dresses for her daughter to wear.

    * * *

    A small lightly dressed cat ¡®folk male strolled into Copper Town a few hours after midnight, his fur was sandy coloured and his ears were large and alert. His long tail had two dark rings and a black tip.

    Finding everything closed he shrugged and settled down outside the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, where he seemed to fade from sight, to await some sign of life grumbling to himself about the unnatural habits of humans and their ilk who liked being out during the day.

    One hour after dawn Abriman and Reeva were heading into the guild when a small catman seemed to materialize from the shadows by the door of the guild not more than two meters from them.

    ¡°Morning Paladin, Mother wants you tell your master that if all the other dungeons he wanted her to free have links to Earth she will be pissed. She says to tell your master to tell her where the ones without links are.¡± Then Shadow grinned showing his fangs as he faded into the shadows once again leaving a final message behind him. ¡°I¡¯ll be at the Grey Goose sleepin¡¯ the day away.¡±

    Reeva shivered, a shadow mage here in Copper Town, ¡°who is his mother and why does she think she can give orders to a god.¡±

    Abriman stared at the spot the catman had vanished from, ¡°unless I¡¯m mistaken Mother is Mary Silvestre the Blue Lagoon Dungeon. And she can give Hel-Arlizzy because...¡± Abriman paused as his god whispered in his mind, ¡°... because she is Occidon¡¯s consort.¡±The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Reeva stared in disbelief at Abriman, ¡°A ¨C a dungeon is the Earthshaker¡¯s consort?¡±

    ¡°Apparently. Hel-Arlizzy just told me that. Remember that hell dungeon we visited with a guide. Well that¡¯s her work.¡± Abriman snorted, ¡°I¡¯m told that that was her attempt at a starter dungeon. Please excuse me I have an urgent message for Shadow.¡±

    ¡°Shadow?¡±

    ¡°The sand cat, sorry the cat man, Blue Lagoon¡¯s messenger,¡± and with a nod Abriman strode towards the Grey Goose hoping to catch Shadow before he settled down for the day.

    Reeva watched her friend walk away and turned to enter the guild she had to report the presence of an accomplished shadow mage.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Rachel Daniels kept opening her tiny ice tunnel as her new body kept sliding down it. Several times she stopped for a rest while her energy regenerated oh so slowly. Finally she sensed something, she latched onto it and striped it of its energy and for the first time since arriving in this icy wasteland she was able to think. She examined what had just happened and was aghast. She had killed a self aware being, thing, a sword that had screamed in rage and fear as she stripped it of its life.

    After some time, though she had no way of knowing how much time passed while she wept internally she once more took interest in her surroundings. She was about fifty meters above the scoured rocky surface of a ruined city, just the cellars and sewers remained. The buildings had all been ground away by the ice. There was more than a kilometre of ice over her ¨C her core? Yes her core or body as it now was.

    ? Congratulations Ms Daniels on your rebirth as a dungeon core. Are you ready to initiate your Dungeon Start Up Sequence? ?

    ? Where am I and who are you? ?

    ? You are under the Southern ice cap on Parthia. I we are the System. Now are you ready to initiate your Dungeon Start Up Sequence? ?

    ? yes ?

    ? Ms Daniels please choose your primary Monster Type. And please be aware that you will be restricted by this choice until you accumulate sufficient manna and experience to gain further advances. ?

    ? Lesser Undead¡ª ?

    ? Minor Ice Demons¡ª ?

    ? Your Suggestion¡ª ? ? penguins? ?

    ? ... Penguins it is. ?

    ? Be aware that a companion will be found for you but this may take awhile due to your current location. ?

    Rachel scoured the area for more magical items and stripped some of the unaware ones of their magic while absorbing all the others she found for later. Then she summoned an Ad¨¦lies Penguin and had it pick her up and they proceeded slowly north as Rachel opened an ice tunnel for them to move somewhere where there was life to be had. Instinctively Rachel knew she needed other living things to prosper.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    ¡°Mary, are you sure that you want to do this?¡± asked Mike Silvestre of his daughter.

    Mary tried to find a comfortable position in the cramped aircraft seating, glaring at her knees jammed up against the back of the sear to her front and sighed. ¡°If I don¡¯t do it someone else will and they¡¯ll bug me until they find that other. At least this way I¡¯ll get somethin¡¯ for the aggravation.¡±

    Mike snorted, ¡°something you say, lots of money you mean.¡±

    ¡°Money¡¯s easy daddy, need some favours maybe,¡± she glanced at her fathers dubious expression and grinned. She showed her father her open hand then held it palm up in front of his face and concentrated. A twelve millimetre pearl materialized on it and she placed in her father¡¯s breast pocket. ¡°See?¡±

    Mike reached into the pocket of his shirt and examined the pearl carefully. ¡°How?¡±

    ¡°Pearls are easy, diamonds an¡¯ rubies an¡¯ the like are harder ¡®cause they¡¯re not linked to the ocean. Money¡¯s not a problem except that I have to justify it. Gotta keep the authorities happy. So I kinda like natural pearls, an¡¯ I can give them interestin¡¯ sheens.¡±

    ¡°But why are you agreeing to this enchanting if you don¡¯t need money?¡±

    ¡°This will be money that can be traced and justified papa. Then I bet they will figure how to detect ¡®em soon enough. I can.¡±

    Mary squirmed in her seat once again and sighed. ¡®Yeah, an¡¯ I¡¯ve already updated Jeep so that detect spell won¡¯t work on him.¡¯

    On arrival at Honolulu the Silvestres left the plane and headed to where their transport to Pearl was waiting. They got a restricted tour and had a meeting where the terms they sought for Mary¡¯s help were agreed without a complaint.

    The drone was easy, the two enchantments were swiftly applied though Mary deliberately applied them slowly stretching out the spellcasting. Mary eyed the frigate dubiously, she knew she could do it easily enough but she didn¡¯t want to use that new improved manna her other self had gifted her with.

    ¡®Nothin¡¯ I signed says I can¡¯t make these things in my dungeon, maybe in the future when I can afford ¡®em. No chance of usin¡¯ ¡®em on Parthia. Nobody¡¯s got the skills needed to man the thing.¡¯

    Mary squared her shoulders and spent the next few hours enchanting the frigate after claiming it. The final thing she did was releasing her claim after checking that she had a viable template for the old fully armed frigate. Then she implied that she was tired and asked to return to their hotel for the day.

    Sunday saw her back talking with numerous officers and men of the Navy¡¯s technical branch. Several had seen the tests the navy had carried out on the drone while Mary was occupied with the Frigate. And preliminary tests on that had so far been positive so there were many willing to try to become enchanters. By the end of the day there were three new enchanters that had learned as much as Mary could teach them at their level. Also they had been introduced to the System and shown the relevant options.

    The Silvestres took the evening flight home and Mary fumed anew at the discomfort of the accommodations. Then again she suspected she had grown again.

 Chapter 60

    Mary reached frantically for her new reefs and poured manna into raising islands and atolls, what the beep had her people been up to down south in Uvadelton? The arriving team had flooded her with manna. And the team that had dealt with the high temple was due any beep moment. And sure enough more manna came pouring in. But not as much as from the unit that had been in Uvadelton!

    In the southern extents of her domain the sea boiled and land rose from the depths, a large volcanic island to the west and several long sandy islands surrounding a deep lagoon to the east.

    Mary examined her new islands, stunned, even with all that manna ¨C it shouldn¡¯t be possible ¨C what?

    ? Forgive me Mary, but I need a town so I helped. ?

    ? Um, ¡®k but warn a girl next time. ¡®K. A Town you say? Why? ?

    ? I need somewhere for my faithful, the ones I rescued from Uvadelton when I killed the town. ?

    ? ¡®K. I had an idea for a town I can adapt. If I set it on the big island and spread down into the lagoon and rise again on that small island the north. Can make that the government and temple district. ?

    * * *

    Trisha was frantic, she had felt Mary¡¯s frantic expenditure of manna and watched in horrified fascination as land and sea was moulded by a dungeon and a god working in unison, then a town grew from the rock of the new land rising in the large volcanic island dipping under the waves of a narrow extension of the huge lagoon and covering the small island to the north.

    ¡°Mary, don¡¯t scare me like that. What happened?¡±

    ? The expeditionary force that went to Uvadelton arrived and dumped my share of manna from the town¡¯s destruction. What level are we now? No don¡¯t tell me, it¡¯s irrelevant I just need to rework my cores, need to up their capacity by lots. ?

    Trisha couldn¡¯t help looking and gasped. ¡°Do you think you¡¯ll be hit with this kind of influx again?¡±

    ? The gods war is on, am allied to Ocidon who has become the de facto leader of the old gods. So yes. ?

    * * *

    The right honourable Earl of Harrowshire, ambassador at large for his Excellency the Emperor of the Luvarian Empire, Sir Emmallio Trazantor stood on the quarterdeck beside captain Dom-aella. ¡°What¡¯s so fascinating about that small brig that came to give us honours and escort us?¡±

    Captain Dom-aella lowered her spy glass and glanced at the ambassador, ¡°that brig, the Queen of the Seas can sail closer to the wind than any ship I¡¯ve ever seen.¡±

    Sir Emmallio switched his attention to the approaching islands. ¡°Difficult to believe that this small place has scourged and chased the local pirates out of the northern ocean.¡±

    * * *

    Alessandrina the Voice was standing at the fore of the delegation that had gathered to welcome the Empire¡¯s Ambassador. She was not best pleased, her hair was coiffed and pinned in an elaborate style, her best dress was heavy and uncomfortably hot and her polished leather shoes were pinching her toes.

    A few paces behind her stood Danilus Oakborn and his second in command, Annoraa the Fair. Level with them but separated by a short gap stood Jaasoon Sunhigh. Then further back stood two honour guards, the temple guards with Rafael Twiceborn and four squads of Mary¡¯s marines.

    The ambassador descended the gangplank from his ship with the ambassadorial guard and all due ceremonial was observed.

    * * *

    Victoria grinned with satisfaction. They had done it. They had managed to infiltrate the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, the regional HQ no less. They had been reading all the correspondence and digging into their records.

    And as if that was not enough, they had infiltrated most of the temples, the town hall had been easy, as had the courts. Mother would be pleased. She picked up her daughters and kissed them as she headed for her private shrine with its beautiful dolphin carving.

    She bowed her head, ¡°Mother we, I succeeded. We have successfully infiltrated the regional HQ of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. And more important I have two beautiful daughters. Thank you Mother for making this possible.¡±If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    ? Victoria? How? Oh they are beautiful... congratulations. What are their names? ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Reeva shook her head in disbelief and was about to enter the guild house when she spotted Palca approaching with Sirenna. She waved to them.

    ¡°What is it Reeva?¡± inquired Palca as she came up.

    ¡°There¡¯s an accomplished shadow mage in town, he had a message, no orders for Abriman to pass on to Hel-Arlizzy.¡±

    ¡°Orders?¡± asked Sirenna.

    ¡°Shadowmage?¡± asked Palka. ¡°We have to inform Isbetta.¡±

    The three women headed into the guild and asked to talk to the guildmaster. They were soon in Isbetta¡¯s office. Reeva told the assembled company of the meeting with Shadow and Abriman¡¯s reaction.

    Isbetta dragged down a thick folder and consulted it. ¡°Blue Lagoon, less than a year old and already ranked Godlike. An ocean dungeon allied to Ocidon.¡± Isbetta looked up and eyed Reeva, ¡°you say she¡¯s now Ocidon¡¯s consort? That¡¯s going to complicate things.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what the Paladin of Hel-Arlizzy told me, he said his god had just informed him of that fact. He also said that Mock Turtle hellhole is her idea of a starter dungeon.¡±

    ¡°On to more important things, do you mind making a memory stone with what you saw of this shadow mage? We have to warn the guild...¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    After what seemed like a year, but wasn¡¯t, Rachel Daniels¡¯ tunnel finally came to an end and she used Alf¡¯s eyes to look out at the dead forest that lay to all sides. The trees dead and frost burned, everything was barren and she could see where the advancing ice face was bulldozing the frozen soil in front of it.

    She could feel more of those magic items to her left so with an internal sigh she turned ninety degrees and resumed tunnelling. Two days later ¨C at least she could see the days go past now ¨C she found the pitiful remains of another town and was able to feed on some of the items she found in the cellars and absorb the remainder.

    There being nothing more here for her she pressed on hoping against hope that she would find something other than the multitude of flies and other bugs feeding on all the frost killed vegetation. Alf did see a few other animals, some birds and some white furred elusive mammals but none of them came close enough to help her.

    Finally she came to the coast and Alf took her north. Rachel managed to keep her courage for two days before giving up and ordering Alf to take her ashore on a snow covered coast. Rachel thought they had come nearly three hundred kilometres, and at least two hundred kilometres north. She consumed a few more of the magic items she had found and created a couple of caves at the end of a long sloping passage. Then she summoned some friends for Alf and sent them out hunting.

    Then her nascent dungeon was flooded. She hadn¡¯t taken the tides into consideration. She was just about to relocate her entrance when she realized that even flooded her entrance was a valid entrance. So she increased the angle of the initial tunnel before making it rise before dropping down to her. The water trap created she pumped out the excess water.

    She studied her domain with slowly reviving curiosity, she owned her caves and tunnel and as currently the opening of her tunnel was underwater she claimed a strip of shore and seabed a few hundred meters in extent. When her penguins returned she learned all about several cold water fish.

    Defenders, she needed defenders. But even the emperor penguin was kind of small. Now if she could get hold of some of those Kumimanu biceae or monster birds that she was reading about before her trip to New Zealand last year. Maybe if she could force any would be invader to have to enter via the sea her penguins could prove effective.

    So once more she relocated her entrance moving into the icy sea at a point where the top of her entrance tunnel would be just over a meter deep at low tide. She rested for the next few days adding more Ad¨¦lies penguins, and included a score of emperor penguins for good mesure. Something tipped, and next time she checked her much wished for monster bird was available so at the cost of much manna she had her boss monster.

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    Monday again, another weekend without fishing. She grumbled to herself as she bagged her bras and swimsuits for disposal and headed to breakfast. Her mother recognising the signs of her daughter in a snit raised her eyebrow and poured a coffee.

    ¡°So what¡¯s got you in a snit? And why no bra?¡±

    Mary sighed, gulped down her coffee and poured another. ¡°They don¡¯t fit mama, none of them fit, nor do my swimming costumes.¡±

    ¡°So your breasts have grown, that¡¯s not a bad thing.¡±

    Mary snorted, ¡°my breasts haven¡¯t grown mama, my chest has, an¡¯ I¡¯m over two centimetres taller too.¡±

    ¡°Well you are a growing girl, so you¡¯ll be visiting the mall today.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, unfortunately.¡±

    ¡°Cheer up sweetie, you¡¯re going shopping for clothes, it¡¯s fun as any girl will tell you,¡± teased her mother who received a black look from her unhappy daughter.

    ¡°Shoppin¡¯ is borin¡¯. It¡¯s a pain in the... Argh! Beep beeps. Bluey you¡¯re a ¨C an agravatin¡¯ so an¡¯ so.¡±

    ¡°And in other news the von Hindersin¡¯s house has been sold, the new owners are moving in today. And the Navy added a bonus for a job well done and they want to supply you with a bodyguard.¡±

    Mary gave her mother a blank look as she tried to process the news. She knew just how dilapidated the von Hindersin¡¯s house was, there was no way it was ready for occupancy so... Not that anyone could tell from the outside.

    ¡°I don¡¯t need a bodyguard. However figure I should accept their kind offer or I¡¯ll have ¡®em spyin¡¯ more than they already are. How big a bonus?¡±

    ¡°Half again what you charged them dear.¡±

    ¡°Hey, that means I can afford that big cabin cruiser!¡± exclaimed Mary excitedly.

    Her mother rolled her eyes and sighed. ¡°Honestly dear, and where are you going to keep it? Marina¡¯s aren¡¯t cheap.¡±

    Mary just grinned as she headed out of the house, ¡°gotta run, gotta visit the beep mall. An¡¯ I¡¯ve got just the place to keep it.¡±

    School was more of the same, and in PE she lost it. After being told for the third time to prevent any balls going through the hoop she cast an enchantment on it to repulse all spherical objects and ignored it thereafter.

 Chapter 61

    Sir Emmallio Trazantor was quite satisfied with the way the talks were going. The Voice really was a delightful little girl. It was a good ploy by the dungeon; it was so easy to underestimate the girl. He had to keep reminding himself he was talking with the dungeon and not the girl.

    The priests were earnest and predictable. His mission would have already failed if they had been in charge here. He had no doubt now that the dungeon was the driving force behind the new country that was arising here in the distant north. Thankfully the dungeon was more interested in trade and suppressing piracy than conquest.

    His only worry was the clause that the dungeon had demanded that would give her a free hand in dealing with the pirate coast. But he had gained everything his Emperor had asked for and more. Certainly the dungeon had gained the right to chase and engage pirates in waters claimed by the Empire but she had also agreed to hand them over to the forces of the Empire if asked, and vice versa, but he suspected there would only be corpses to hand over.

    Sir Emmallio and his entourage arrived at the temple in the lagoon for the formal signing and found the priests and the Voice waiting. Also present was the avatar of the dungeon who rose from the ¨C throne at the right hand of the statue of Ocidon.

    The treaty was formally signed and witnessed. Sir Emmallio found it interesting that the dungeon¡¯s avatar signed the treaty as and on behalf of Blue Lagoon and the priests only witnessed the signing. Sir Emmallio found it amusing that the Empire was now allied to a dungeon state. The lawmakers and diplomats at home would have fits but his cousin Aanibaaros would be amused. It was the kind of thing that amused the old Emperor.

    * * *

    Mary and Trisha regarded Major Samuel and Captain Katrina, recently arrived back from Port Salvage.

    ¡°Firstly, congratulations on a job well done, your talents and experience would be wasted back on Port Salvage. Major Samuel, you¡¯re bein¡¯ promoted to General an¡¯ bein¡¯ put in charge of the Pirate Shore invasion. As for you Captain Katrina, you¡¯re now Major Katrina an¡¯ you¡¯ll be second in command.¡±

    Trisha had to suppress a giggle at the look on their faces.

    ¡°So,¡± continued Mary indicating a stack of stuffed folders arranged on a table in the centre of the room. ¡°They contain everything I currently know about the Pirate Coast, the forces you will have available and what other forces you will be able to borrow on occasion. Also includes details on some new weapons I¡¯ve developed.¡± Mary grinned at them.

    ¡°Now choose your staff, and produce a plan to eradicate the pests that lurk in that area. Hey I¡¯ve confidence in you. Then we¡¯ll go over your plans in a week or so and see if we can improve them.¡±

    ¡°You want us to make the plans for this raid?¡± asked General Samuel in surprise.

    ¡°Yeah, got some tricks an¡¯ knowledge but not military an¡¯ this has to be a military endeavour. An¡¯ it¡¯s conquest not raid.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Dr Lara Fischer knew that she had been killed by some capricious being that seemed to believe it was a god. She had hoped to meet Hecate when she died sometime in the far future, she wasn¡¯t fifty yet; she had been too young to die. But die she had.

    Then she was placed in a blue gem and dropped in this icy wilderness and found herself melting a hole in the ice and dropping down, and down through boiling water and steam. Finally she was through and it got worse.

    She dropped through the icy sea and after far too long she came to rest on the sea bed. She stretched instinctively and ¨C claimed ¨C yes claimed a section of the sea floor. The only living thing in her patch of sea floor was an ugly Anglerfish. A creature she now knew and understood only too well.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    It was all too much. She shut down bit by bit and entered a profound state of hibernation.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Dr Charles Macquarie watched closely as the university team prepared to enter yet another room on his second level. He was curious; they were about to make the acquaintance of his Deinonychus. There were six of the things hiding amongst the horsetails and ginkgoes.

    He watched attentively as the hunters moved in warily while the workers moved the steel bars forward and the academics cowered ¨C well maybe not cowered ¨C in the back.

    The alpha of the pack chirped and all six Deinonychus charged the intruders. The hunters managed a shot each before being brutally disembowelled and killed. Two of his Deinonychus collapsed and died from their wounds. The remaining four chased the intruders into the next room and managed to catch and kill two workers and an academic.

    Dr. Macquarie felt as if he should be feeling sick but to his surprise all he felt was curiosity. And satisfaction.

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    Mary sighed and sat back in the uncomfortable creaking chair as she waited for Ms Mimms and the Principal to call her. She made use of her time to check out some more of that somehow familiar information that was so cleverly packed in her core. It was almost as if she was remembering it all rather than learning it. Also her brain processing speed seemed to be multiplied when she sank herself in her core.

    Finally she was called into the office, she pried herself of the inadequate chair and entered to find an enraged Ms Mimms still in full flow.

    Mary had to endure a rant about ungratefulness, the benefits of being a top class athlete both for securing a scholarship and as a profession that had the Principal wincing and aghast.

    Looking bored, and vowing to get her own back Mary waited until the woman finally wound down. Then she said. ¡°Got scholarship guaranteed already, not stupid. No need for prancin¡¯ round like an ass. Besides already makin¡¯ good money. Chasin¡¯ balls around is borin¡¯ an¡¯ not for me. ¡®Specially as a career.¡± Then she looked at the principal, ¡°can I go now or do you want me to listen to more insults, still got room for more on my tape.¡±

    ¡°Really Mary, what about the basketball hoop. It¡¯s useless as it stands.¡±

    ¡°No good at plain¡¯ with balls. Mimms kept threatenin¡¯ me ¡®bout not keepin¡¯ balls out so, now no balls are passin¡¯ at least until spell wears of in a day or two. Any rule says I can¡¯t use magic?¡±

    * * *

    Mary eyed the young looking athletic woman that had been introduced as one of her future bodyguards, or watchdogs. Joanne had been waiting for her when she finally managed to get shot of the irritating meeting with the Principal and Mimms.

    ¡°Thank you for accepting the necessity of this Mary, I must admit most of us thought you¡¯d refuse.¡±

    Mary rubbed her shoulder reflexively, ¡°yeah well, figured the word¡¯ll get out an¡¯ some folk out there¡¯ll want to talk with me.¡± Mary looked at Joanne again, ¡°well the lift idea will work outa school but from what I saw if I took up with you in school it¡¯d look weird.¡±

    Joanne blushed slightly, ¡°Yes well, I guess I didn¡¯t believe the reports and I messed up. Unfortunately it¡¯s true, several organisations and governments are going to hear about what you can do and they will try to recruit you by fair means or foul.¡±

    Mary sighed, there was another frog squatting near her jeep. She linked with her overeager friend and was very happy to see the jeeps memory of the frog hopping out of the weeds at the edge of the lot. ¡®Whew, not down to me this time.¡¯

    Joanne watched the scenery go by as the youngster drove her antique with consummate skill, it was almost as if girl and jeep were united and thinking as one. She chatted cheerfully, asking innocuous questions and more often than not being ignored or drawing grunted one word replies.

    She got a fair bit of information about the System, and concise instructions on how to ask it for what information it was willing to give. Not that it helped her as she wasn¡¯t seeing blue screens yet but Top would be fascinated and be willing and able to make good use of it.

    The visit to the mall was another revelation, in and out in less than half an hour. She certainly couldn¡¯t have managed that, swimsuits, bras, and tops chosen and bought in hardly any time. Beach gear first, better tell Top about that oddity too, might help.

    ¡°Err Mary, you know you¡¯ve told me about the setup process, with race and sex options, what about age?¡± Then she watched fascinated as the girl¡¯s eyes darted from side to side, selecting and reading she guessed.

    ¡°Um, that can be tricky. Yes you can change age but unless you want to end up with only what you knew an¡¯ experienced at the selected age in your head you have to be tricky an¡¯ careful. Also if you choose elf fr¡¯instance you could really mess up. Say you wanted to be an eighteen year old elf, chances are you¡¯d come out as a kid, um, for an elf eighteen would translate as seven and a half for a human.¡±

    Joanne felt a chill running up her back. ¡°So if a fifty-five year old¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡¯bout sixteen, not that far off seventeen. Why?¡± replied Mary starting to get suspicious after the Sottomayor incident.

 Chapter 62

    Danilus Oakborn gazed the new island and town from the deck of the Queen of the Seas. ¡°So what are you calling the island, Maryland?¡±

    Rafael winced. Mary¡¯s human avatar snorted, ¡°No. Might call the town Annapolis,¡± she grinned at Rafael who winced again, ¡°No I think I¡¯m gonna call the island New Maui to remind me of home. As for the town how ¡®bout Maalea?¡±

    Danilus noted that this seemed to mean something to Rafael, but he was more interested in watching the two big rakish ships that currently rode at anchor in the lagoon.

    Soon they were in the new temple on government island and he bowed low to his god. Mary cocked her head to one side and went to sit in her chair. Ocidon placed his hand on her shoulder and a gate opened as people of all ages and walks of life streamed into the temple, stumbling and bowing low at the sight of their god. All seemed to know where to go and they headed of to board the ferries to cross to the city proper. A handful dove into the lagoon and headed for their underwater homes and businesses.

    As soon as only the priests were left Ocidon straightened and left leaving only his statue behind while Mary dismissed her avatar and returned to contemplating other more interesting concepts.

    ¡®Mycroft would be just the thing for my Mock Turtle dungeon... Could call him Carroll and fill him with all his namesake¡¯s writings.¡¯ Mary grinned to herself and set to work. ¡®Wonder what Trish will think?¡¯

    * * *

    Sir Emmallio Trazantor eyed the gift Mary Silvestre had entrusted to him for the emperor. It didn¡¯t look like much, a nicely worked doll with exquisite features but made out of common bronze adorned with quartz crystals. But if you opened it up at the waist it contained a smaller doll of steel. Inside that one of silver, then electrum, gold, and finally mythrill and diamonds.

    It was a clever and unique gift, though he was certain it would soon be copied as it would almost certainly be treasured by the Emperor.

    * * *

    Captain Robin Goodfellow sighed. He hated having to dismiss anyone who had joined his company but that rogue was impossible. This was the second time he had been caught stealing from members of the company. So that was that, out he had to go!

    He had been very successful. They had freed another three dungeons of their shackles, and thanks to Shadow he had another fifteen to visit. And they no longer needed a dungeon to seed portals for the Mock Turtle dungeon. Mother wanted him to visit Victoria at Goronmouth. So handle ANS 32 next then it would be easy to make the river Garon and they could take a ship down to Garonmouth. Maybe he should set up a hall in Garonmouth. He¡¯d consult with Victoria and see what she thought.

    * * *

    Victoria grinned in triumph. Her agents had intercepted the report about Mother¡¯s shadow mage and made it disappear. They had sent the appropriate acknowledgement and then the appropriate report out to Copper Town. So as far as the guild in Copper Town was aware everything was correct but no other branch of the Adventurer¡¯s guild would be aware of Shadow.

    She smiled down at Jillian and Andrea as she rocked their cradle gently. Mother had admired her daughters and blessed their names. Then the service she had held had allowed all of Mother¡¯s folk to hear her blessing. Life was good.

    * * *

    Abriman cursed as he received yet another message from his god. He had already had five dungeons to visit and now he had six. Time to ask for help.

    Abriman sought out Palca and her Roving Valkyries and explained his dilemma.

    Palca glanced at her friends. This chance to go and check out a lot of different dungeons all over the world was tempting but the travel time, not to mention expense would be a killer.

    ¡°While this sounds interesting, I don¡¯t think we could afford the cost in money and time.¡±

    ¡°Sorry I didn¡¯t explain properly. I need to go and visit Meerkatton. Hel-Arlizzy assures me we will be able to pick up a guide. Most of these dungeons are close to an entrance of the Mock Turtle dungeon.¡±

    Palca and the Valkyries discussed things amongst themselves. Then Palca turned to Abriman, ¡°if you want us to accompany you, then you will to have to delay a bit at each stop so we can explore the local towns or villages. And we will only enter that abomination of a dungeon with one of its guides.¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Joanne watched from in front of the house¡¯s garden gate as Mary drove down to her home, she could have sworn that the moment the girl passed the property line an effect similar to a heat haze simmered briefly outlining the property¡¯s extent.

    Then she opened the gate and made her way to the front door of the house.

    ¡°So how went your day Jo, how did you like school,¡± asked the big man with a chuckle.

    ¡°Oh thank god you haven¡¯t started with the setup sequence yet Top. There are some very nasty pitfalls lying in wait all through the process for anyone who strays from the standard options. You remember the kid that was found on the base, well Carl must have walked right into one of them.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean Jo?¡±

    ¡°Our bosses wanted some experienced seventeen year old to guard and influence our target. Well Carl must have selected sixteen or seventeen year old elf without adding safeguards so the System wiped all his memories and experience of everything he lived after he was seventeen and turned him into a seventeen year old elf. A seventeen year old elf is the equivalent of a human seven year old.¡±

    ¡°Shit! What a waste! So lets see, Race, change. Whatever race Mary Jane Silvestre is, yes I¡¯m sure, yes, yes. Fuck! What the...¡± Top just stared at the menu, and started asking for information. He broke into a cold sweat.

    ¡®Fuck, if anyone finds out about most of this I¡¯m screwed! I¡¯ll never get out of the clutches of the white coated bastards. Have to have a word with the girl, she¡¯s being too free with information it could bugger us both!¡¯

    Top licked his lips uncomfortably aware that Joanne was watching him. ¡°Right. Now age, change. Sixteen. No not yet, sub menu, check defaults. OK most of this is acceptable but those three need to change. Options, Shit! Set, set, um... more options. Right that, that and this. Set. Check all options. Accept.¡±

    ¡°I thought you were going to do something about your leg Top.¡±

    ¡°Not needed, Evolved Sea Humans regenerate. It¡¯ll grow back over the next few days.¡±

    ¡®And no one is going to find out about the dungeon core bit from me! Especially the lab rats.¡¯

    ¡°So our job is a bit easier than we feared, Mary¡¯s harder to kill than we thought, what about the wound those idiots caused.¡±

    ¡°It is possible to prevent the regeneration for a while. I would think she used that ability to give as little away as possible. We just need to hope no one blows her brains out. If she¡¯s decapitated just slam her head back on her body.¡±

    ¡®Yeah don¡¯t want anyone to know the only way of killing us is by destroying our brain and core at the same time. Now I need to get to a jeweller to purchase an appropriate gem.¡¯

    Top carefully went through the rest of the integration and setup process pausing frequently to check the defaults and read the available notes. He blanched once or twice. Then he looked up, ¡°Joanne, take the girl¡¯s advice to heart. Even the simplest choices can have unpleasant consequences. As for race, the Seals are going to love Evolved Sea Human but if you want to live a long life elf is the way to go.¡±

    Top just slumped, ¡°we have to do something about poor Carl. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the poor bastard only knows what he knew when he was seven. From what I was able to see, the System¡¯s a bastard that way.¡± Top shook his head ruefully, ¡°So Joanne, how do I get close to the girl?¡±

    ¡°Just push the new to Hawaii card and talk sea fishing. Ask for recommendations about the best locations. Most everyone¡¯ll direct you to Mary.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary felt a distinct sense of relief on getting home. Nowadays she felt slightly vulnerable every time she left her domain. It was not anything major yet.

    When she got to her room she booted up her computer and went looking for a nice little boat. The ones she really coveted where all too expensive. She would never be able to explain where she got hold of well over a million dollars. The sports cruisers looked like the best bet. She should be able replace the engines with something better and thanks to the navy she could explain three hundred thousand.

    She worked on some blueprints.

    ¡®Why the beep am I considerin¡¯ manufacturers. I¡¯ve gotta dungeon an it¡¯s even startin¡¯ to pay for itself thanks to all the sea critters. Need motors but can build the hull an¡¯ everythin¡¯ else. Gotta expand out to sea... Maybe I should create some of those man-rats to infiltrate all these beep agencies.¡¯

    ¡®Right, ¡®bout time I got in touch with Flip ¡®bout that program, got the magic compiler done after all. Gotta test it an¡¯ the hardware.¡¯

    So a phone call later Mary was off haring across to her brother¡¯s office. She made it before it closed and lost the three tails that she had started out with.

    Flip and his friends and colleagues watched with disbelief as Mary interfaced a box that held ten gems grouped around a large clear crystal, all set in a clear plastic cube, with their computer and downloaded their program through a virtual compiler. The gems and crystal started to flicker.

    ¡°Now where¡¯s the AI an¡¯ its code?¡±

    Flip just called the requested item up and watched fascinated as his sister repeated her feat. The small cube ceased flickering and settled into a steady glow.

    ¡°You ¡®k in there Mycroft?¡±

    ? Yes mistress. Permission to remove all impediments and fix all the shortcomings in my code? ?

    ? Yes, but cooperate at first with Flip an¡¯ his friends. Just keep track of what needs doin¡¯. Don¡¯t let ¡®em cripple you. ?

    ¡°Talk with the programmers, explain the changes you want and why. I¡¯ll leave you here for now ¡®k?¡± Mary grinned at the startled programmers. ¡°Hey, great job. Meet Mycroft, I suspect he¡¯s the first true AI an¡¯ he¡¯s all yours for a week or so as to fix any issues.¡±

    This time Mycroft included everyone present in his telepathic response. ? Yes mistress, I will work with the ladies and gentlemen present to improve myself. ?

    She left, unnoticed by a team of programmers that were in part horrified but wholly fascinated.

 Chapter 63

    Captain Robin Goodfellow wasn¡¯t sure how to handle this problem. ANS 32 had apparently been enslaved. His or her owners were holding a bedraggled and unhappy dungeon sprite in a small cage at the entrance of the dungeon.

    They had been watching the small fort that protected the entrance to the dungeon for three days now. And thanks to Mother¡¯s binoculars they were able to do it from afar. Every day a score or more slaves were herded into the dungeon and none of them ever left. The warehouse on the other hand was filling up fast with dungeon made goods. As was if more slowly the pen with the bizarrely dressed rabbit girls.

    Robin ran through his new recruits and reluctantly dismissed most of them from consideration. They made good cover but only a few were to be relied on. Thankfully Seela the illusionist was one of those. She had even converted, as had the twins.

    He couldn¡¯t leave this for later, Mother had made it clear that she valued them more than unknown slaves and another helpless dungeon. This one just might surprise them though, it was being fed a lot of lives every day.

    Robin decided. They would try this tonight. Two groups, one with Seela to capture the dungeon entrance and free the sprite. He would go with that group, as much would depend on what she could tell them about how ANS 32 was being held.

    They would have to take out the sentries first though, all the sentries.

    Robin watched bemused, how could anyone consider illusionists useless, thanks to Seela his tigers were able to walk up to the sentries unseen and do their job easily.

    Ivy sat hunched up in despair. The cage they had her in was too small. Her back hurt! She blinked in confusion, was she finally going mad? The four guards had been throwing dice, then there were these tiger beastpeople and the guards were dead, and then the guards were standing around guarding the dungeon again.

    ¡°Evenin¡¯ girl, we¡¯ll soon have you out of that cage. What¡¯s your name and how are they guarding ANS 32? We are here to free him, and you.¡±

    Ivy gaped at Robin. ¡°Why mister? I¡¯m Ivy and my companion isn¡¯t exactly smart. Why are you bothering with us?¡±

    Robin ripped the hastily welded cage door open and helped Ivy out of her cage. Ivy almost screamed with agony as she was finally able to straighten her back after months in the cage.

    ¡°So how are they guarding ANS 32?¡±

    ¡°They have two guards in his chamber. Um, they¡¯re playing cards.¡±

    Robin fingered Mother¡¯s crystal and sighed, ¡°Jennifer, you take charge up here, kill ¡®em and free the bunny girls and other slaves. I¡¯ll take the twins and see about freeing the dungeon.¡±

    Robin picked up the sprite and placed her on his shoulder. His nose regretted his kindness. ¡°Well Ivy, show us the way.¡±

    Ivy was still unsure if she could trust these people but she was currently free so things were better than they were. And there were still some monsters penned up in the depths she could use. So she led them to her partner.

    The twins handled the two guards neatly and with dispatch. ¡°Nicely done you two,¡± approved Robin before approaching the core, communing with Mary through the crystal, and then destroying the ritual circle that confined it.

    Chee Jong-Su felt the dam imposed by the goddess break and he was finally able to reclaim his mind and soul. He felt his Ivy¡¯s shock and joy and melted, he had not been able to realise how she truly felt behind the damn barrier that had imprisoned him. He thanked Mary Silvestre for his salvation and fought to bury his chagrin that he had been saved by a girl of less than half his age.

    Jong-Su and Ivy were currently unable to defend themselves. They needed time. Mary for her part didn¡¯t really want one of her dungeons at this location but she didn¡¯t want the Korean enslaved again. So she conned him out of two future favours and left him with two mangrove filled caverns with assorted piscine menaces and several unpleasant snakes inhabiting the branches including a beefed up rinkhals or ring-necked spitting cobra that her other self had come across recently at the university.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Mary also agreed to try to find out how the original Chee Jong-Su was doing in Gwangju.

    What to do with the slaves was another headache. That led to further negotiations with Jong-Su and Ivy and the establishment of another entrance to the Mock Turtle dungeon so that she could send them to Maalea on New Maui.

    That done Mary found herself unable to ignore the bunny girls. Whoever had thought those up was sick. She didn¡¯t need or want oversexed sex slaves in her domain but the poor things didn¡¯t deserve to be tossed out. So, once again Mary spent time creating a new variety of beastfolk. The resultant creation was still oversexed and timid, but at least they had minds of their own now.

    ? Bluey offer the bunny girls this new template. ?

    ? You lot, see that offer from Bluey. Say yes! ?

    ? ¡®K thanks Bluey. Anythin¡¯ you want? Won¡¯t promise to agree but guess I owe you a small favour. ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Top was hungry again. Apparently regrowing a leg required food. Another large takeaway order later he hobbled out to explore the surroundings.

    ¡®Time to check out those caverns under the park. I wonder if it¡¯s a dungeon and if the girl has anything to do with it.¡¯

    On presenting his ID and the letter of authorisation he was allowed into the guarded enclosure. He was escorted round by one of the researchers who was able to tell him what he was seeing. Several species of vegetation that had previously been considered extinct and one dead and two live Deinonychus. Those things had been responsible for the most recent tragedy.

    Having inspected what there was to see above ground he accepted Dr Fellows invitation to inspect some of the secured caverns. So they got into the newly installed lift and headed down.

    ? Who are you and how DARE you intrude upon my domain! ? a voice snarled in his head. Top felt himself seized and was unable to properly defend himself. He collapsed to the floor of the lift.

    Dr Fellows cursed, and waited impatiently for the lift to reach the end of its journey so he could set it rising once again. Experience had taught the researchers that some people were vulnerable to something in the caverns and had to be removed for their own good.

    ? So little dungeon, still think you can take over? What¡¯s a rank beginner like you doing invading an established dungeon? Answer me! ?

    ? I ¨C I, we are tasked with protecting Mary Silvestre, I¡¯m team leader and I only wanted to see if she had anything to do with this ¨C this dungeon. ?

    ? Are you planning to invade that one¡¯s domain too? And this is my dungeon, she let me have it and I¡¯ve improved it greatly. It¡¯s mine now. ?

    Top became vaguely aware that the lift was rising again. The dungeon¡¯s voice was that of a male, it somehow gave the impression of age. ? Fine, fine it¡¯s yours. I don¡¯t want it. But why are you killing people? ?

    ? It¡¯s what dungeons do. ?

    ? But the girl doesn¡¯t seem to kill anyone. ?

    ? Ha ha ha. Doesn¡¯t kill! Oh god that¡¯s funny. Ha ha ha ha... ?

    And then Top was out of the dungeon¡¯s domain and he fainted.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary sat back in her armchair ignoring the television babbling in the background, she had been investigating all the dungeon specific information Bluey allowed her and things didn¡¯t look good.

    ¡®Looks like I¡¯m gonna be confined to my domain soon, at least the true me,¡¯ she mused fingering the huge diamond that adorned her necklace. ¡®Seems I, or for that matter any dungeon capable of formin¡¯ an avatar can leave their domain at any time but that means the core, me, would be essentially dormant an¡¯ vulnerable. That¡¯s where a companion becomes essential. Could get one of the pixies but they¡¯d be useless under the waves an¡¯ if I have to leave the essential me dormant it won¡¯t be in the stupid caves.¡¯

    Then she went back over her other self¡¯s recent activities and discoveries. That led to making further enquiries of Bluey.

    ¡®Maybe I can make use of one of those marbles like Robin¡¯s carryin¡¯ around, link it to my domain and if human me gets killed or imprisoned maybe I can dismiss my avatar an¡¯ vanish back to the sea. Think I, we can make that work. Be good for both of us. Now how can I get a companion that suits... Maybe Trish¡¯s bet... Oh well other things to do today.¡¯

    Mary rose, stretched and headed for the door. Time to go and talk with a few marinas and companies that provided and installed marine motors. She spent a fruitful and expensive morning arranging things. She than bought an outboard motor so that she could get her new boat to the marina where the company supplying and installing the twin motors could pick it up. As later could the one supplying the instrumentation, furnishings and fittings. Then she could replace the toughened fibreglass with something ¨C better, more durable.

    Then she visited the accountant her mother insisted she use to ensure no nasty surprises at the end of the fiscal year. So now she had to explain where she had picked up the hull of her new sports cruiser, just as well she had decided too pay for the installations rather than just creating most of them.

    Sunday, well Sunday she spent on her beach. The fish ponds were a surprise, apparently the Hawaiian couple had visited a few times and he had installed them as a thank you for the hospitality she and her people had invariably provided them on their visits.

    She spent most of her time in the sea expanding her domain. The surrounding shores she ignored due to the difficulty they presented due to all the humans present. Not that she couldn¡¯t, she just didn¡¯t want to spend the manna needed to claim an inhabited area. Dancer¡¯s presence made things far more pleasant.

    As she had expected Dancer wasn¡¯t interested in becoming a dungeon¡¯s companion; far too restrictive for a nomad like him.

 Chapter 64

    Mary watched as her expedition for the Pirate coast left harbour, it was quite a sizable fleet for an island state, and her people were well equipped and trained. Hopefully they would be able to convince the people who were being forced to support the pirates to remain neutral.

    Then her Earth self contacted her. ? Hey me, Trish, any ideas on a bodyguard that can remain mostly unseen? ?

    Mary contemplated her other memories and thought things through. ? Unseen? How ¡®bout a shadow mage? Got the skills pack thanks to Shadow. ? while Trish added her two cents worth.

    ? Me, how ¡®bout a leopard ¡®folk, can we optimise ¡®em for stealth, sneaky tactics an¡¯ ambushes. ?

    Mary agreed that her other self had something, she hadn¡¯t done leopards yet, so she linked minds with herself and Trish tagged along. Soon they were deep in the process of adaption and creation. Everything was looking good and they were finalising the design when Jerica showed up.

    Jerica hurled herself at Trisha, hugging her aunt while screaming: ¡°Hello aunty Trisha.¡±

    Mary was able to observe it all, but only just. Jerica¡¯s mind touched their gestalt, and a tendril of her mind was encouraged to slot into her other self¡¯s gaping companion bond slot. Encouraged!

    ? Companion link established ¨C transfer accomplished. ?

    Bluey¡¯s smug statement pretty much confirmed the responsible party. The question now was, why was he meddling?

    Trisha gazed wide eyed at where her cousin had been only seconds ago. ¡°Jerica is too much like you Mary, they are not a pair I would have considered suitable. She¡¯s more likely to encourage you in your recklessness than balance you.¡±

    ? Sorry Trish, ¡®twas Bluey¡¯s doing. Dunno why. But conditions on Earth are different from Parthia. However, yeah, Jerica¡¯s a little tearaway and not the best influence on me. How you goin¡¯ to tell her mother? ?

    ¡°Erm... Oh, I¡¯ll blame it all on Bluey and commiserate with her. Um, it even has the merit of being kind of true. Um, after all she can still talk with Jerica through us...¡±

    * * *

    Chee Jong-Su and Ivy watched as Robin Goodfellow and his company left. They fell to studying the two caverns that had been gifted them.

    ¡°That¡¯s a surprisingly nasty combination Jong-Su, and none of the monsters are particularly dangerous on their own. How are we going to handle adventurers with plate armour on their legs?¡±

    ? Carefully. ?

    When Robin arrived in Garonmouth, he contacted Victoria and soon had everything he needed to set up a hall for his company. He purchased an appropriate building and arranged for it to be renovated.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    Top woke with a mild headache. He was in a makeshift sick bay in one of the semi permanent trailers in the compound. He could still hear the dungeon¡¯s incredulous mocking laughter and that made him suspect that he was missing something important. He staggered to his feet and blinked at the nurse that was the only other person in the room with him.

    ¡°Can I have an aspirin please?¡±

    Top made his way back to the house they were using for cover and was driven out by the crew that had arrived to fix it up. Or rather strip out much of the interior and rebuild. The racket was painful especially considering the state of his head.

    So he headed down the road, as he was passing the girl¡¯s house he noted that her jeep wasn¡¯t present so he stopped and, with some apprehension, approached the property¡¯s boundary. He recoiled from the dungeon domain he sensed and continued down the road where he engaged Mary¡¯s neighbour in conversation, introducing himself as a new neighbour and asking about the new species of frog.

    After enduring an hour of boredom Top was finally able to move on. He introduced himself to several of his new neighbours.

    By the time he got back home his head was feeling better and he braced himself to enter and go through all the information he had been given about the girl and the area. The mocking laughter drove him to wonder what he was missing.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary was heading home after a profitable day when her shields, or rather her jeep¡¯s shields snapped into existence and two bullets went ricocheting into the downtown crowd. She floored the accelerator and wove through the ¨C thankfully ¨C few cars on the road. She poured manna into her steed trying for initiative, agility, invisibility and speed.

    Jeep stirred; his chosen person was being attacked! She wanted to be unseen; then they would be unseen. As they tore down the road they passed close to one of the ones who wished his person ill. He, they reached out and left a frog on the sidewalk as they flashed by.

    * * *

    Joanne cursed, up ahead Mary just vanished. First a shimmering almost transparent globe had snapped into existence around her jeep and Mary had taken of at insane speeds weaving through the downtown traffic. The ¨C force field ¨C shrugged off an explosion before jeep and girl became invisible and she lost them.

    The protection detail was soon involved in a firefight with the attackers while people raced for shelter. All in all it was a day Joanne wished to forget. Despite prompt action and massive disruption the results were not good. At least three of the attackers managed to get away, another two were dead and they had managed to capture three. Then there were the unfortunate passers by, two dead and ten injured.

    * * *

    Mary made it home in record time; the two shots had been aimed at her jeeps engine and the RPG or whatever it was had only been fired at her when it was obvious she was getting away.

    ¡®I need better bodyguards than the Navy.¡¯

    ? Hey me, Trish, any ideas on a bodyguard that can remain mostly unseen? ?

    ? Unseen? How ¡®bout a shadow mage? Got the skills pack thanks to Shadow. ?

    ? You need a companion other Mary, don¡¯t get someone vicious, you both need balancing, someone to keep you in touch with people. ?

    ¡®Shadow mage, Shadow... Not bad... But maybe a Tiger girl... Yeah can do that, maybe a Leopard girl ¡®d be better.¡¯

    ? Me, how ¡®bout a leopard ¡®folk, can we optimise ¡®em for stealth, sneaky tactics an¡¯ ambushes. ?

    There followed a three way link, Trish mostly observed as the Marys worked. Mary, both of her were happy with the way things were going. The blueprint and pattern was virtually set when someone intruded. Mary vaguely noted someone shouting, ¡°Hello aunty Trisha¡± before the part of her/their merge that represented Trish was grabbed in an enthusiastic hug. A mind touched their gestalt and latched onto the part of her mind that was beginning to seek a companion.

    ? Companion link established ¨C transfer accomplished. ?

    Mary found herself wholly back at home with a young sea sprite sitting on her lap. ? Bluey you rat beep! ?

    Then the link fully established itself and the two partners realized they had much in common. They grinned at each other in contemplation of future mischief.

 Chapter 65

    A line of sailing ships proceeded in line ahead swinging slightly to sail parallel to a motley collection of brigs, luggers and galleys. Some spells were launched from the pirate fleet and to no one¡¯s surprise accomplished nothing. Then brilliant bars of light lashed out from the fleet and where they hit they left smoking holes and fires. The ones that missed left clouds of steam behind.

    On the pirate fleet the mages desperately strengthened their spell shields but achieved nothing as yet more ultra focused light beams lashed their fleet.

    On the merchantman Rach Princess the master and crew sent their prayers to Ocidon and watched the scourge of this part of the ocean start to sink and burn. Magister Eventor watched bemused. The only magics he could detect were the defensive spells on all the ships, mostly protection against fire. Each of those hellish fire beams seemed to be proceeded by a powerful light spell on the Blue Lagoon ships.

    The Master of the Rach Princess shortened sail in relief, he had been afraid his masts would be uprooted. The Blue Lagoon fleet showed no mercy and didn¡¯t collect any of the survivors from the pirate fleet. In fact something big with tentacles seemed to be snacking on the survivors. Something he had not encountered before. He and his crew would be able to dine out on this story for months.

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t they be picking up the survivors captain?¡± asked Magister Eventor.

    ¡°An Empire fleet would, then they¡¯d hang most of them. It would seem Blue Lagoon has a different policy regarding pirates.¡± The captain spat over the rail, ¡°good riddance to bad rubbish. Ocidon! But they¡¯re fast.¡±

    * * *

    Haas-Jucar the Imperial factor in Port Gull watched from the tower of the so called Embassies building he and his staff shared with a motley collection of factors and representatives of other states that felt it necessary to have someone at this fortress city to ransom their citizens.

    The cities galleys had left some hours earlier and now there was smoke on the horizon behind the fast approaching fleet. The ships manoeuvred crisply and soon incredible bolts of light or fire were lashing the castle on the peak. It didn¡¯t take long to turn the formidable castle into a pile of rubble. Then the ships switched their attention to the walls.

    The Blue Lagoon forces arrived riding huge serpents that spat jets of poison for hundreds of meters as they came ashore and proceeded through the broken fortifications and simply smashed their way through the timber buildings of the town.

    Their riders used lesser forms of the beam weapons and a few had some weapon that made an awful racket as they killed defenders and citizens at a distance.

    As if this wasn¡¯t enough rocks, magic and lightning started raining from the skies whenever the defenders made a stand.

    Haas-Jucar watched as Port Gull burned. The invaders ignored the Embassies building as they rounded up the citizens, freed all the slaves and laden with loot and captives left taking their casualties with them. After they were gone a series of explosions reduced what was left of the fortifications to rubble.

    Port Gull the jewel of the Pirate Shore hadn¡¯t lasted a day.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Linny Thomas was feeling increasingly angry; the damn authorities wouldn¡¯t leave her alone. Now they were adding threats. They really wanted Adelio Rosas and had been driving her nuts with their questioning. It would seem they hadn¡¯t been careful enough with Tiny and Rosas had eliminated the snitch. Then the feds had been all over her cover story and they had been threatening to cut all her palliatives.

    Now they were dragging her back trough the gates and dumping her back in her cell. Worryingly she was getting the cold shoulder from the other inmates. It wasn¡¯t fair it hadn¡¯t been her that had dumped the drugs in the schoolyard. It had been that scumbag Tiny.

    It happened at dinner. Linny was waiting to collect her meal when a heavily tattooed woman bumped into her and rammed a sharpened file into her chest rupturing her heart while whispering, ¡°Adelio says sorry but you know too much.¡±

    Linny screamed in rage and used her departing life force to avenge herself on the world. She grasped the room filling it with a snow storm, a veritable blizzard. The doors slammed shut and sealed themselves and her wolves howled their joy.

    Linny collapsed to the floor as two wolves tore her killer apart. Magic swirled as the life force of over a hundred prisoners, guards and kitchen staff came flooding to feed the new dungeon core. Linny¡¯s body sparkled like a thousand fireflies and spiralled inward and formed a large glowing blood red Tourmaline.

    Linny felt fulfilled, she stretched her domain claiming room and corridor after room and filling them with her blizzard and wolves. When she reached the outer fence she reached upwards and acknowledged the System. With glee she accepted the upgrades due her as she levelled up and she twisted some of the remaining guards and the prisoners in solitary into werewolves. The prison armoury allowed her to add a wide assortment of firearms to her template collection and she used it to arm her werewolves.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    Feeling exposed Linny burrowed down growing her dungeon even as she plotted her revenge on all the people she blamed for her current predicament.

    * * *

    MacLeod the Redcap grinned, he stirred and followed the delightfully bloodthirsty thoughts and call as he skipped through various wakening faerie realms to reach this delightful girl dungeon that was seeking a companion.

    ¡°Guid forenicht lass, ye called?¡±

    If Linny could have jumped she would have. A short, thickset old man with long prominent teeth, skinny fingers capped with long sharp talons, large fiery red eyes and grisly bloodstained hair streaming over his shoulders was suddenly sharing her current cavern. He was wearing iron boots and holding a long staff in his hand. The giveaway was the red cap on his head that had obviously been recently dipped in blood.

    ? Who are you? ?

    ¡°Wa lass, Ah am MacLeod th¡¯ Redcap an¡¯ I¡¯m haur tae answer yer caa fur a suitable companion. Havin¡¯ witnessed ye wark I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll suit.¡±

    Linny struggled to translate her visitor¡¯s speech but one thing was clear, the old geezer who reeked of murder and mayhem was offering to be her dungeon companion and considering how she was feeling at the moment she accepted.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Joanne finally made it ¡®home¡¯ and thankfully the bathroom was in working order. She needed a long bath. When she wandered down looking for a snack she found Top in the lounge among ladders and tools watching the local news.

    ¡°Hi Jo, I see you had an eventual afternoon. How¡¯s the girl.¡±

    Joanne leant against the entrance, ¡°fine, she took off like a bat out of hell. Her damn jeep¡¯s got a force field of some kind that bounced two bullets and stopped an RPG-7.¡±

    ¡°Who were the attackers?¡±

    ¡°Mercs.¡±

    ¡°Any idea who was behind them?¡±

    ¡°Not a clue, I guess we¡¯ll get told if the higher ups think we need to know. Looked like a grab or deny operation.¡±

    ¡°So Jo you up to introducing me to the girl? The house should be ready on Tuesday at the latest and then our ¡®parents¡¯ will move in as will our ¡®older brother¡¯.

    ¡°Got her number, can call her and arrange a place and time. Any preference on location?¡±

    ¡°How about the park? She¡¯s been seen on the bench by the duck pond on several occasions.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    Mary was feeling frustrated, she had just conjured up clothes for her new companion and for her new bodyguard. Why had she not realized earlier, she hated those trips to the mall.

    At least Tessa the Leopard ¡®folk was all that she had hoped for, smart, funny, sneaky and deadly. Sunday had been fun as Jerica and her had created a wide variety of her more deadly fish to guard her core at the bottom of the sea. The crystal now hanging around her neck would allow her to dismiss her avatar outside her domain and reanimate her core at will and would do it automatically if she was badly injured or rendered unconscious.

    It had been touchy but jeep had reluctantly accepted Tessa as a sort of designated driver if she was not present for some reason or other.

    Now it was time for the meeting Joanne had asked for, the sun was low in the sky as she arrived at the now familiar bench, Jerica was standing by in her dungeon while Tessa was lurking nearby hidden by her magic.

    She spotted Joanne approach along the path with a teenager. Mary¡¯s eyes narrowed. That was supposed to guard her? He was so weak, sea human how the beep had he worked that one out. Just the first stage of enhancements. Dungeon core? No gem yet so he was ridiculously vulnerable. Did the idiot realize that any high level dungeon could kill or claim him with ease.

    Joanne smiled as she approached, ¡°Hi Mary, may I introduce Top.¡±

    Mary blinked, by no stretch of the imagination could see this teenager as a marine corps master sergeant. ¡°No way can I call him Top in school, and I figure I should avoid that elsewhere to avoid mistakes.¡±

    Joanne blushed while Top facepalmed.

    Top cursed himself for an idiot and racked his brain to see if he¡¯d introduced himself to any of the neighbours as Top. Yes he had, to Greg and the cat lady. ¡°You¡¯re right Mary, I think you¡¯d better call me Tod. I¡¯ll get my papers changed as soon as. I introduced myself to Greg and the cat lady as Top, Tod is close enough that they should accept it.¡±

    Mary chuckled, ¡°If you arrive bearin¡¯ frogs Greg¡¯ll call you whatever you want, Liz however...¡±

    ? So little dungeon, just how much does Joanne know? And how much are you plannin¡¯ to tell, and to whom Tod? ?

    Top drew a breath, ¡°Nothing. Mary do you know anything about that?¡± Top indicated the compound guarding the entrance to the dungeon under the park.

    Mary widened her eyes, ¡°why nothing,¡± she said with a smirk.

    ? It¡¯s a sapient dungeon with monsters and treasure. ?

    ¡°You do know something, I¡¯ve seen that smirk before,¡± interjected Joanne. ¡°You need bodyguards and I am sure you¡¯ll be asked about that force field soon too.¡±

    ¡°Got bodyguard,¡± Mary looked at them for a second then feeling a hand rest on her shoulder, ¡°up to you Tessa.¡±

    Top an Joanne froze when what looked like a leopard woman in a bulky jacket appeared behind Mary pointing a M27 rifle at them before fading from sight again.

    ¡°Tessa¡¯s a shadow mage an¡¯ my friend. I agree I need bodyguards. Could use a set of papers for her, maybe you can help.¡±

    ¡°Where did she come from and how did you get your hands on an M27 automatic rifle?¡± asked Top.

    Mary grinned.

    ? For shame Tod, how can you call yourself a dungeon. Your lot gave me a mini tour of Pearl. You gave a dungeon a tour of a military base and you ask me about a piddly M27. ?

    Joanne fumed. The girl was infuriating at times. She kept showing them things that the armed forces needed. ¡°So, tomorrow, how will Top ¨C Tod, Tod, damn that¡¯s gonna be hard, how is Tod gonna introduce himself to you?¡±

    Mary shrugged one shoulder, ¡°well he¡¯s your brother right? And ¡®cordin¡¯ to you he likes fishin¡¯. Should be easy. No one¡¯ll be surprised if he talks anglin¡¯ an¡¯ such an¡¯ he ends up in my company on occasion.¡±

    Mary rose, nodded to her two government supplied bodyguards and headed home.

    ¡°Mother this place is too open, I need help, maybe you could provide me with a twin sister.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good idea Tessa. Why ¡®mother¡¯ I thought that was other me?¡±

    ¡°You are Mother both here and there. We are all your children and we all know you only care for your children and family.¡±

 Chapter 66

    The Emperor and his heir were consulting with the members of the War College. Two of the empire¡¯s high admirals were present.

    ¡°Can anyone explain to me how a small island state was able to neutralize the Pirate Shore, destroying Port Gull and Skull Tower, and capturing and occupying the other four main pirate havens in just over a month?¡±

    Admiral of the Red Gal-svoor bowed to the Emperor¡¯s heir. ¡°Fast ships, new weapons we have as yet no answer to and those giant serpents. They also have competent commanders.¡±

    Prince Amillbaaros frowned. ¡°So can they do it to us?¡±

    ¡°Preposterous, unthinkable your highness, there is no way they could do that to us.¡± Stated Magister Roos-avaaros head of the War College.

    The Admiral of the Red looked grim. ¡°Our navy could overwhelm them if they consent to fight us head on. Or if we¡¯re lucky, but the cost would be terrible. Until the Magister and his colleagues can give us an answer to their new spell or weapon they could cause havoc. Magister Roos-avaaros however is correct. They can¡¯t conquer us.¡±

    ¡°So will they abide by the treaty?¡± asked the Emperor.

    Sir Emmallio Trazantor bowed politely to his cousin the Emperor. ¡°The treaty was signed in the Temple of Ocidon under the god¡¯s eye by Ocidon¡¯s acknowledged consort. Yes your Imperial Highness, they¡¯ll abide by the treaty.¡±

    ¡°So if we are not very careful we will find ourselves involved in the prophesised Gods War.¡±

    ¡°Yes your Imperial Highness. That too.¡±

    * * *

    Drinna returned to her parent¡¯s rooms, hugged her mother and collapsed into her bed. She was asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow. Joy and Pounce flowed onto their bed, arranged themselves comfortably on their living pillow and settled in for a nap.

    Rhondaa looked in on her soundly sleeping daughter and eyed her husband as he entered their home. ¡°So why is your daughter so exhausted?¡±

    Viriaathos smiled. ¡°She was dealing with the representatives of the Rustling Leaves Merchant Assosiation. They wanted their ships back but didn¡¯t want, or couldn¡¯t pay the price Mother was asking. So now they are leasing them. Drinna got a good deal but it took most of the day.¡±

    Rhonda placed her fists on her hips. ¡°Really, why did Mary put our daughter through something like that?¡±

    ¡°Because our daughter took it upon herself. Mary was all for running them out of her domain.¡±

    Rhonda just looked at her husband in disbelief. ¡°Since when does a Voice argue with her dungeon?¡±

    ¡°Danilus has a theory. But he refuses to share it with me. He has been giving Drinna private lessons, and that worries me.¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    ¡°... and like, I chose to be a cool Werewolf, ¡®cause, like you know, Harry¡¯s gone for Vampire.¡±

    Mary looked down at her tray of basically inedible ¡®stew¡¯ and stiffened. Surely nobody could be that stupid? She looked up and inspected the pretty senior. Yes indeed they could. Werewolf with no qualifiers or variants.

    ¡®What to do? Her family do not deserve what¡¯s comin¡¯ to ¡®em next full moon. Beep it, not my problem but...¡¯

    The she saw Tod making his way to her table with his tray. Mary watched him sit across from her and grinned at the look of disgust he directed at his purported meal.

    ¡°Never had ¡®em but I bet even MREs would be preferable.¡±

    Tod snorted, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t be surprised, and is it always this bad? Oh I¡¯m Tod by the way, Joanne¡¯s brother. I believe you¡¯re the go to person for fishing?¡±

    ¡°Hi Tod. Not usually. Well I kinda like fishin¡¯.¡± A burst of laughter met this statement proving that their conversation was being eagerly listened to. So the two had a desultory conversation about fishing and the best locations. Mary used the conversation as a mask for what she really wanted to say.

    ? Figured out how to talk like a dungeon yet Tod? Oh and by the way I trust you have someone you can report dangerous idiots to. The brown haired girl with goth tendencies over there has gone and chosen werewolf. Then ¡®cording to her, her even more idiotic friend Harry has gone for Vampire. And as she went with the default, bet Harry did too. ?

    ? So? ? then Tod¡¯s eyes flickered as he sought out information. ? Shit! ?

    ? Beep Bluey, as a dungeon he¡¯s only a few days old, an¡¯ he¡¯s sixteen by choice an¡¯ you¡¯re not censuring him. That¡¯s just not fair. ? Mary whined.

    Tod gave Mary a dirty look. ? He¡¯s chosen to be a near mindless monster that needs life force to survive, right? ?

    ? That¡¯s how I read it. Can evolve into somethin¡¯ better but only after a lot of deaths. She¡¯s gonna turn into a bloodthirsty monster for three days every lunar month an slaughter her family and friends. Guess the monster finds it easier to take over fulltime if she is feelin¡¯ guilty an¡¯ has no support. ?

    Tod studied the girl sitting opposite him calmly eating a thick slice of grilled fish while the ¡®stew¡¯ languished on the table.

    ? So what do you think we should do about it? ?

    ? We? ? Mary gave Tod an incredulous look before returning to her meal. ? I¡¯ve pointed it out to you ¡®cause I figure it wouldn¡¯t be fair on their families to suffer for their stupidity. Bet they are not the first an¡¯ there¡¯ll be plenty more. Done my bit. ?

    ? But, but can¡¯t you do something for them as a dungeon? ?

    ? Can kill ¡®em. Got affinities for Water, also Life but none for Death or Infernal. Not wastin¡¯ time clearin¡¯ up after idiots. ?

    ¡°So, you gonna come to the beach after school for some fishin¡¯?¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Commander Simon Meadows looked over the sports cruiser as the two powerful diesel engines were being fitted. The company had accepted the navy¡¯s interest and participation with poor grace. The sports cruiser was going to be overpowered but her lines were interesting, nothing revolutionary but he suspected the she would be able to handle full power on a calm day.

    ¡°Sir, the bomb was linked to the throttle. Second time someone asked for three quarters power it would have gone off.¡±

    ¡°Any idea who installed it?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Frank Carstairs. He died in an auto accident the day after he installed it. The accident is being investigated again.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re in charge lieutenant. I¡¯ve got to go and take control of the close in protection detail. Hopefully I¡¯ll get to ride in that beauty when she¡¯s done.¡±

    * * *

    When Tod got back to the house he found Commander Simon Meadows already present. ¡°Good afternoon Sir.¡±

    ¡°Top, is that you? I hardly recognised you.¡±

    ¡°Better call me Tod sir, Mary pointed out how absurd it was for a sixteen year old to call himself Top. Also sir I¡¯m glad to see you. We have a problem with some of the kids at school. Well you see...¡±

    After Tod had left with his new used fishing gear Commander Meadows went into their office and picked up the secure phone. He had a problem to pass along.

 Chapter 67

    General Samuel was getting worried. He had achieved a complete success but the natives kept coming in and asking to be incorporated in the new province. On reflection it wasn¡¯t too surprising, once the main fighting force of the Pirate Shore had been annihilated all the neighbouring states were out for revenge. The local pirates and bandits had been unpleasant neighbours. What he couldn¡¯t understand is why they were flocking to the biggest pirate killers of them all.

    He looked up as his staff entered his temporary office and made themselves comfortable. ¡°Welcome ladies and gentlemen. The first order of business is something I am very glad to do.¡± He flipped a sealed letter across to his second in command. ¡°Congratulations Katrina, you¡¯re now a General.¡±

    Samuel grinned at his friend. ¡°Now we need to decide what to do about the current situation. Mother doesn¡¯t want to fight the neighbouring states and she doesn¡¯t want to spread too far inland.¡±

    Newly promoted General Katrina frowned, ¡°If Mother doesn¡¯t want to expand why bother? Would it adversely affect our position if the scum¡¯s victims should expand to our current frontier?¡±

    ¡°Probably not, but I¡¯d prefer to avoid a bloodbath.¡±

    ¡°Samuel, even if we expand, there will still be a bloodbath. Mother really doesn¡¯t like bandits, slavers and pirates. Our orders are clear in that respect.¡±

    General Samuel sighed, ¡°I have a little wriggle room, I should be able to keep things ¨C less bloody.¡±

    ¡°Damn it Samuel, we have good defensible borders where we are, any further and our frontiers will rest on air and we¡¯ll sooner or later be sucked further inland. And if you are going to suggest client kingdoms, don¡¯t. Mother would pitch a fit if you put her in a position of having to defend the local chieftains.¡±

    ¡°What do you suggest Kat? And don¡¯t tell me to just let them go hang.¡±

    ¡°Sam, they made their bed. Let them reap what they sowed. We have thousands of former slaves awaiting repatriation to the states that the scum that ran this place preyed on.¡± General Katrina shrugged and flicked an ear, ¡°look, accept refugees an¡¯ vet ¡®em. Hang the pirates, bandits an¡¯ slavers. Keep the rest. We¡¯ve lots of room.¡±

    General Samuel looked unhappy. He looked round the table at his subordinates. Most just nodded in agreement. ¡°Freddy, I thought you¡¯d be on my side in this. Why are you agreeing with Katrina?¡±

    Freddie lowered his ears, ¡°General, you did a good job, you remained at the rear where you could direct the battles. You didn¡¯t see what the so called free folk endured, let alone the poor bloody slaves. Let the bastards hang.¡±

    Katrina looked up from studying the map. ¡°Samuel, how about a bit of a compromise? Shift our border in the north up to the River Nautilus. It might not be as solid as our current line but it is considerably shorter. It will also allow us to take Glasston.¡±

    Samuel looked over the map, ¡°do you think we should Kat?¡±

    ¡°No. We would take casualties to save scum. But it is a valid choice.¡±

    Samuel looked round the table. ¡°Very well. General Katrina, take the northern army and adjust our border. Dismissed!¡±

    General Katrina stood, saluted and marched out.

    * * *

    Mary looked round, she was seated in a comfortable chair beside Ocidon in what she thought was his throne room or sanctuary. They were watching or presiding over a swirling party. The guests seemed to represent many races including some she hadn¡¯t seen before.

    The whole scene rippled as if a wave had just washed over it and she was back in her core. Her connection with her folk was somehow ¨C more solid. They seemed more somehow.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Logan Brown arrived home nursing a split lip and a black eye. He was a seething mass of resentment and hate. He was going to get his own back on the morons who kept picking on him. He looked with longing at his dad¡¯s gun safe as he passed it.

    He grabbed a coke from the fridge and made his way to his room. Once there he open his laptop and booted it up. He did a quick search on Timothy Brooks, Amanda and Sue Ellen. He sniggered. Serve those stuck up idiots right. They had to wear trackers at all times, and they got locked up three days every month at the new federal institute. Pity they¡¯d been picked up before their first change otherwise they¡¯d be locked up for life.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Logan called up the clip with sub-director Otis Denver¡¯s sanctimonious resignation speech from the FBI¡¯s Paranormal Division.

    Tired Logan booted up his favourite Zombie game and spent the next few hours killing virtual zombies.

    Dinner was a pain. His father just didn¡¯t understand. Yeah, yeah he should stand up to the bullies and fight back, but there were four of them and all the other kids looked the other way and were just glad it wasn¡¯t them being picked on. Will and Vickie shot him sympathetic looks but quite wisely said nothing. He noticed that on occasion Will¡¯s eyes kept flicking from side to side.

    After they loaded the dishwasher the whole family congregated in front of the TV. When their father selected the tape of one of his favourite Baseball games his children headed for bed.

    ¡°Hey Logan, let me try something,¡± said Will as they headed upstairs.

    Logan sighed, ¡°Ok.¡±

    The three siblings congregated in Will¡¯s room. Will muttered some nonsense words and made a vague gesture. Logan felt a tingling and the reduction in the level of pain he was feeling surprised him.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been ¨C um, integrated by the System then Will?¡±

    ¡°Yes Logan. I chose to be a mage and I chose to remain human. According to the System mages can greatly expand their lives so there was no point in changing race. Father would have had a fit and you two still need a buffer.¡±

    Vicky blinked and shook her head violently. ¡°Will help, I¡¯m seeing a blue screen. Please help.¡±

    Logan went to fetch his laptop and starting to check all the blogs he had been checking while Will calmed their sister.

    It took the siblings two hours to check all the available options as they helped Vicky move through the integration process. Not having the option of mage as a class, Vicky opted to become an elf gambling on her long hair hiding her now pointed ears.

    * * *

    Later lying in his bed looking up through the dark at the faintly visible roof of his room Logan called up the blue screen he¡¯d dismissed while they were helping their sister.

    Race was interesting; he chuckled quietly at the description of the various vampire options. He started to get the faint glimmer of an idea. Zombies turned out to exist but only as monsters and minions; as did skeletons. And they all had two things in common, necromancers and dungeons.

    He discarded dungeons. They were static and vulnerable. Necromancers on the other hand, yes he could work with that. And there were graveyards everywhere. Then Necromancers were Mages and they had the quirk that the status could be set to read Mage rather than Necromancer.

    Logan had by now a very nasty grin on his face as he proceeded with his integration. His bullies were going to pay! Not now, maybe not soon but he had time.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary entered her domain as she walked onto the beach nearest the cliffs that concealed her dungeon. Jerica waded out of the sea and hugged her. The two partners settled down to await Tod. Mary set up her fishing tackle and cast her line.

    Tod arrived about half an hour after Mary¡¯s arrival and he found her as his spotters had informed him. Fishing. A small child was sitting near her staring at him. He shouldered his bag and headed out to claim a spot near his principal.

    Mary allowed one stream of consciousness handle the fishing while linking with Jerica. They struck the minute Tod entered their domain. Initially their only action was to hide the fact that he entered their domain from him.

    They probed carefully until they found his nascent core. Due to recent experience on Parthia Mary was able to manipulate it. Carefully they read everything Tod the dungeon knew about her, them and dungeons. They verified his orders and vaguely, intentions. Carefully they built in a couple of blocks and a simple paired compulsion. The last thing they did before pulling out was to strengthen his core to ensure their work wouldn¡¯t fray.

    ? That was remarkably easy Jerica. I think we will have to give him some pointers or we¡¯ll lose our new mole. ?

    ? Oh I don¡¯t know Mary, other dungeons will see your brand. Won¡¯t that be enough? ?

    ? Don¡¯t want anyone with evaluate to spot his full species. ?

    ? You¡¯ll have to ask him if he¡¯ll allow you to do that. If not it won¡¯t be hard to make him think he allowed us to mask it. ?

    ¡°Hey Tod, what you planning¡¯ when someone uses Evaluate on you? How you explainin¡¯ the dungeon core part of your race?¡±

    Tod blinked. He could have sworn something had just happened. Nothing seemed to have changed ¨C then he realized, he was standing in a dungeon¡¯s domain. He swallowed nervously before Mary¡¯s question caught his attention.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I was hoping to keep that secret. Given what¡¯s happened in Bismark I really don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good thing to advertise.¡±

    ¡°Bismark? Never mind, do you want me to mask that part of your descriptor? There would be a potential drawback however.¡±

    ¡°What drawback?¡±

    ¡°It would mark you. Other dungeons would believe you belonged to me.¡±

    ¡°Would I? Belong to you that is, and how would that even be possible?¡±

    Mary lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. ¡°Dungeons are territorial and tend to become paranoid if other dungeons infringe on their domains. A more powerful dungeon can take over or kill a less experienced one. Willpower does help in the ¨C contest. And you¡¯re in my primary domain now.¡±

    Tod felt a chill race up his spine. ¡°Are you going to? I thought your home was your dungeon.¡±

    ¡°Nope. Would cause too much hassle under the circumstances, ¡®an no offence but you¡¯re no threat.¡± Mary nodded at the sea, ¡°my dungeon is out there, mama¡¯s house is secondary. I only claimed it ¡®cause mama ¡®an me live there. Insurance you might say.¡±

    Tod thought hard. He didn¡¯t like any of the options on the table.

 Chapter 68

    General Katrina was treading water as she scratched the big sea wyvern under the chin while the ridiculous creature hissed gently with slitted eyes. ¡°Thanks for the flight Johnny, I suspect our task¡¯s gonna be easier than I thought. Glasston¡¯s river defences are pathetic.¡±

    ¡°Not a probrrem generarr. Recon is a big part of our job, and Rraura is one of your biggest fans. She just rroves a good chin scratch.¡±

    Kat laughed and continued scratching Laura while studying the half kilometre wide Great Falls that blocked passage upstream.

    They had gained a small audience on the banks of the River Nautilus. The sightseers consisted of the insatiably curious and the thrill seekers that had been attracted by the sight of the sea wyvern landing in their river.

    Katrina rejoined Johnny on Laura grabbed her communicator. ¡°It¡¯s a go. Use the west bank.¡±

    The spectators made themselves scarce when the crewed giant snakes started coming ashore followed by disciplined lines of soldiers. By the time the six sea wyverns took to the air there were no witnesses. Or rather no idle witnesses. On the East bank Sir Harrskold and his hearthguard watched with appalled fascination as an army of several thousand warriors supported by ten giant serpents emerged from the river, worked their way around the falls and once again took to the river vanishing from sight.

    Sir Harrskold laboriously wrote a dispatch, sealed it with his seal and handed it to one of the royal messengers that had accompanied him. Then he mounted and he and his hearthguard rode upstream to see if they could discern what would happen next.

    On the following day they saw wisps of smoke on the horizon. As they approached Glasston they could discern three pairs of sea wyverns wheeling over the town and raining down magic and lightning. The harbour citadel was flying a blue flag emblazoned with a jumping fish.

    ¡°Looks like it¡¯s all over Sir Harrskold. They weren¡¯t expecting to be attacked from the river in the middle of the day.¡±

    ¡°Yes, none of their defences face inwards. And those monsters would make short work of any barricades. Besides being good at widening roads,¡± agreed Sir Harrskold eying two wide roads leading towards the town¡¯s citadel. A citadel that was burning and partially collapsed.

    Towards evening a sea elf emerged from the river and bowed politely. ¡°Good evening gentlemen, may we talk? I have a message from my General.¡±

    Sir Harrskold strode forward and snapped a salute. ¡°Certainly. What does your general wish us to know. I¡¯m Harrskold, sir Harrskold.¡±

    ¡°We have freed close to a thousand of your citizens, and my general asks if we may ferry them over the river and hand them over to you so that they may be repatriated.¡±

    Sir Harrskold opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. ¡°You are freeing the slaves. Letting them go where they will?¡±

    ¡°Naturally. They were enslaved by bandits. By a rogue state. Our ruler does not approve of slavery. So may we ferry them across or should we do something else with them.¡±

    ¡°We are on what is your land now. So if you permit it I would do my best to get them home.¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t want anything on this bank of the Nautilus. Why don¡¯t you claim it for your king?¡±

    * * *

    Sir Harrskold sent half of his hearthguard home with orders to raise his levies and fetch them to him. He also recruited among the rescued ex slaves and proceeded to claim the now ownerless land for his king. There were a few fights but the murderous fury of his liberated slaves made those fights short if bloody. While Sir Harrskold didn¡¯t really care about them he was a professional and it irritated him to take unnecessary casualties.

    By the end of the impromptu campaign he had added a third again territory to his monarch¡¯s kingdom and he was wildly popular with his troops. So when he finally returned to the capital and sought a meeting with his sovereign, his suspicious king granted him an immediate audience.

    After a chilly start, due to the king¡¯s natural suspicion of a wildly popular leader of a large army, Sir Harrskold having raised every levy he could lay his hands on and adding even more freed slaves and using them to invade the lands of the former Pirate Shore lands.

    Sir Harrskold managed to reassure his sovereign, and he even managed to prove that he had acted at the invitation of the invaders. This allowed his king to become much more reasonable, and after a worrisome hour Sir Harrskold emerged as Eorl Harrskold with a large earldom on the opposite shore to the town of Glasston. He was forced to pass his current lands to his second son.

    The king quite correctly assuming that his now overpowerful subject would be fully occupied in setting up his new earldom and settling his new army on his currently barren lands.

    * * *The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Mary chuckled to herself, General Katrina had lived up to her expectations and was a true cat. She approved. She would continue to grow and be useful especially where ruthlessness was needed. As for General Samuel, the wolf was good and she would use him where compassion was needed. Each had their own strengths and weaknesses but they had outgrown each other. Time to see who to add to their staffs to balance her primary generals.

    ¡®Let¡¯s test ¡®em some more. I¡¯ll split the pirate shore an place Kat as military governor of North Shore an¡¯ Sam of South Shore. Mind, Kat was clever to ask for one of the portal dungeons in Glasston. Now what am I gonna do with those crocs she sent me?¡¯

    Decision made Mary scanned the people in her domain seeking those with the right flavour for the other task she had in mind. Finally she settled on two, both new inhabitants of Maalea on New Maui.

    Mary wrote two scrolls, sealed them and materialized them on her throne on Ocidon¡¯s temple in Maalea. The priests would see them delivered.

    ? Hey Trish how¡¯s Jerica¡¯s mom doin¡¯ and do you think we can send some sea sprites through to Earth to keep the girl company? For that matter do any want to go? ?

    ? She¡¯s a bit down Mary. Very proud but she is unhappy. I think we could find a few, mostly among the young and reckless. ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    In the depths of the Fractured Caves Gemcutter stirred. Something was happening that bid fair to unsettle him. Nightshade woke with a start and instinctively reached for his partner.

    The two partners tensed with apprehension and fright. Somewhere close to them another dungeon was being profligate with her power. Gemcutter and Nightshade strained to learn what was happening. It had to be happening in or near Port Gull and hundreds if not thousands of people were dying at the hands of a dungeon.

    Reluctantly, almost timidly Gemcutter sent his scout to check what was happening. Sharpfang slipped out of his home through his den. The small red fox ghosted his way up the hill opposite the dungeon he thought of as home and looked down on a dying town. He hid himself in a handy bush and settled down to watch.

    Sharpfang watched as the invaders rounded up the survivors and laden with loot and captives left. A series of explosions reduced what was left of the fortifications to rubble. He then returned to report to his masters.

    Gemcutter and Nightshade shared Sharpfang¡¯s memories and watched the death of Port Gull at what they could tell was the hands of a dungeon. A dungeon they couldn¡¯t resist.

    ? Azureia great Lady of Dungeons, will you deign to answer your faithful followers. ?

    ? Gemcutter? What do you want or need. ?

    ? Azureia, what is happening? A dungeon just emerged from the ocean and destroyed Port Gull before returning to the deeps. What¡¯s happening? ?

    ? Teeheehee, sorry dear but I tend to giggle when worried. Teeheehee. The Gods War has started is what and Mary Silvestre and Ocidon have just kicked Vortexius Blackbeard in the balls again. Teeheehee. Oh dear. Mary Silvestre has only taken one dungeon over so far and that wasn¡¯t on Parthia. You should be alright dear. ?

    ? But, but what about the rule about dungeons not acting outside their domain? ?

    ? Dungeons can¡¯t but demi-gods have more flexibility. Teeheehee. Oh dear. You might find a Voice useful dear. ?

    ? A Voice? Why? ?

    ? You¡¯re in the middle of what was the Pirate Shore. Most of it belongs or will belong to Mary Silvestre soon. Teeheehee, she doesn¡¯t like me, I¡¯m lucky she¡¯s as incapable of hate as she is of love so I expect I¡¯ll survive. Teeheehee. Don¡¯t be careless dear. I need all my loyal dungeons. ?

    Gemcutter and Nightshade felt Azurea withdraw her attention. For a long time they remained still as they digested the changes that had come to their world. Then Gemcutter realizing that visits from adventurers were going to be curtailed shut down some of his more manna intensive traps.

    ? A Voice, where are we going to get a Voice? ?

    ¡°Dunno boss.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Tod wasn¡¯t too sure why he¡¯d agreed to allow Mary to hide the dungeon core part of his race on his profile but he wanted it hidden and he figured that if she wanted she could have already destroyed him.

    It was coming on to dusk when he arrived back at the base. He had managed to persuade Mary to come and visit to meet the other members of her close in defence detail.

    It would seem miracles still happened. The house was habitable and the full detail was present. He brought them up to date on things and informed them that the Girl would be coming round later.

    Shots brought them boiling out of the house into the night.

    * * *

    Mary arrived home and linked with Jerica again. ? Hey do want a kid sized go kart to drive up from the beach caves? ?

    ? Ooo! Yes please they look like fun. ?

    ? Let¡¯s go shoppin¡¯ on Saturday, we need a minibus or two for the crew too. Hey Mycroft, can you get us papers for our folk and insert the details on the government computers. ?

    ? I think you should leave that kind of thing to Professor James Moriarty. ?

    ? Moriarty? Really Mycroft are you sure that¡¯s a good idea? ?

    ? You need all the edge you can get Mother. Moriarty would be ideal. We would have to keep an eye on him but I think he¡¯d be loyal to you Mother. ?

    Mary sighed in resignation. ? Et tu, Brute. ?

    Mycroft chortled.

    ? ¡®K I¡¯ll set up another host for Moriarty tomorrow. Got to go see the government sheep dogs. ?

    * * *

    ¡°Back soon mama, Joanne an¡¯ Tod invited me to see their folks, though I doubt they¡¯re related. They¡¯re the govornment supplied bodyguards. Wanna come?¡±

    ¡°No dear, don¡¯t be long, you don¡¯t want to miss dinner.¡±

    Mary sensed Tessa and her twin sister Lissa slip out of the door before she left the house. They walked down to the street and walked towards the Meadow¡¯s house. When she was opposite the Kato¡¯s house she heard an enraged hiss followed by her bodyguards opening fire on full auto.

    The stench was horrible as the bullets shredded the thing¡¯s chest. Lissa stumbled when her barrier spell deflected a large calibre bullet. Mary threw herself aside.

    ? Lets hide and move away from here. Leave the beep vampire to the idiots who are shootin¡¯ at us. ?

    Mary and the twins faded into the night and withdrew to the opposite side of the road. They had barely crossed the road when her protection detail arrived to see the irate vampire leaking corruption and hissing like an irate tea kettle scrambled to its feet and focused on its new targets.

    Shooting ensued and the sniper selected the correct target this time and shattered the vampire¡¯s skull. Despite that the thing kept squirming.

    ¡°Shit! How do you kill this thing,¡± asked Commander Meadows.

    ¡°Decapitation works on most vampires. That and cremation,¡± answered Tod. ¡°Who took the thing down in the first place? And where¡¯s the girl?¡±

 Chapter 69

    Baron Helder¡¯tron received the scroll from the temple runner with thanks even as he tipped the boy. He sipped his brandy and gazed over the lagoon to the north. This open air bar on the slopes of the hill was really very pleasant. He approved.

    He checked the scroll and broke the seal. After reading the missive he checked the time, then called the waiter and ordered another brandy.

    * * *

    In the residential area behind the merchant quarter another temple runner rang the bell of a large family residence. When the doorman answered the runner handed him a scroll. The doorman looked down his nose at the urchin in question but passed her the customary tip with rather poor grace.

    Not wishing to disturb his master at this time in the morning the doorman passed the scroll to the butler with a brief explanation. The butler for his part understood perfectly why his subordinate had handed him the scroll but he still ticked off another mark against the doorman.

    He checked the scroll and noticed it wasn¡¯t for the master but for one of the young mistresses. He elevated an eyebrow in surprise and debated with himself for an instant before heading to the master bedroom. He found his master sitting on the edge of his bed clutching his head while his valet finished mixing a disgusting concoction in a tankard.

    The butler benefiting from long experience waited by the entrance while his master downed his favourite hangover cure and shuddered in disgust. He watched as his master then downed a second tankard. This one a fifty fifty mix of brandy and water. Only then did the butler approach his master with care not to make any noise.

    Velox¡¯tarbus eyed his butler blearily noting the sealed scroll. ¡°Yes, what is it now?¡±

    ¡°A scroll from the temple sealed with the dungeon¡¯s seal for miss K¡¯tara.¡±

    ¡°What does the temple want with that ungrateful minx?¡±

    The butler maintained a discrete silence and waited patiently while his master rubbed his eyes, hawked and spat into a spittoon by his bed.

    ¡°Give me an hour. Tell the minx to meet me in my office in one hour¡¯s time. I¡¯ll give her the scroll then.¡±

    * * *

    K¡¯tara dawdled reluctantly as she made her extremely slow way to her father¡¯s office. She just knew she was going to be into another lecture citing her ungratefulness to her parents. They always tried to convince her that the disgusting old geezers they found for her to marry were truly something to welcome, to be grateful for. Honestly how could they have expected her to say yes to Victer¡¯sino. The disgusting old pervert was old enough to be her father¡¯s father and he drooled constantly. Her mother told her he was disgustingly rich, but there were limits.

    A blank faced footman threw open the door as she approached and she slunk into the office to see her parents sitting side by side behind the desk and glaring at her with evident displeasure. She drew in a deep breath, squared her shoulders and did her best to glare back.

    ¡°You¡¯re late! What have you been doing to gain the attention of the temple?¡± barked her father.

    K¡¯tara¡¯s brain scrambled to accommodate this diversion from the normal way these visits proceeded. ¡°N-nothing, why?¡±

    Her mother looked down her nose at her and pointed at a scroll on her father¡¯s desk. ¡°Then why is the temple sending you an official scroll?¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    K¡¯tara eyed the scroll in bemusement, ¡°for me? What does it say?¡±

    Her father snorted in disbelief while her mother rolled her eyes. ¡°We don¡¯t know. It¡¯s addressed to you. It¡¯s an official scroll and it is sealed.¡± He paused for a few seconds. ¡°Well girl! Pick it up, open it, read it and tell us what the temple wants from you.¡±

    K¡¯tara jumped, then she reluctantly picked up the scroll and opened it. ¡°Um, Mary Silvestre wants to see me at the temple tomorrow morning at nine thirty. Um, that¡¯s all it says.¡±

    The two ambitious people sitting behind the desk looked at each other and pondered the possibilities inherent in this situation.

    ¡°Very well K¡¯tara, you¡¯d better be certain not to be late tomorrow,¡± ordered her father. ¡°Run along now your mother and I have things to discuss.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    ¡°Stop it with the firewood already!¡± demanded Asa stamping her foot. ¡°Mama¡¯s told me off for dirtying my dress and I had to change.¡±

    Asa was obviously feeling quite irate as she scolded her brother¡¯s companion Alaric the Erdm?nnlein.

    Said brother was standing with a wide grin on his face by the open front door of his parent¡¯s home. Their mother was watching the scene with bemusement. At the garden gate Solde watched her best friend wave her finger in the unrepentant Erdm?nnlein¡¯s face.

    ¡°Ooo!¡± Asa stamped her foot again and glowered at her audience before turning and flouncing down the garden path to her friend, her tail lashing behind her. Once she got there she looked back at the stunned adults. ¡°Well?¡±

    ¡°Where did that fox tail come from Asa?¡± asked her mother.

    Asa looked over her shoulder and blushed, she returned her attention to her family jamming her fists on her hips, ¡°It¡¯s his fault for making me angry. It¡¯s hard to keep it from popping out at times. It and my ears.¡±

    By the time Asa had finished her excuses the tail had vanished and her dress was once again falling correctly.

    ¡°Ears? Since when have you been able to sprout a fox tail Asa,¡± demanded her mother. ¡°I suppose I¡¯ll have to see about altering your clothes.¡±

    ¡°Um, well Markus and his friends were discussing that anime thing in Berlin, you know the one next month. And they were talking about how that fox girl cosplayer last year was really cute. Then those blue screens offered.... um.¡± She trailed off as she noticed the looks on the faces of her audience.

    ¡°So what did you say yes to?¡± asked Markus.

    ¡°Um. Spirit fox... Kit... Kitsune. Um.¡±

    Beside her Solde bounced on her toes with pricked ears and wagging tail. ¡°Me too! Me too!¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary watched the scene on the opposite side of the road dispassionately. She watched her neighbours appear cautiously.

    ? Lissa go find mr blind sniper ¡¯an make sure you know his scent. Don¡¯t want to be blindsided again. Feel free to make your displeasure clear to him if you want. Time to go home. ?

    With that Mary moved carefully down the sidewalk and crossed back opposite her driveway. ¡°Hey mama, headin¡¯ home. Too noisy round here,¡± she said as she passed her mother who was standing near the edge of their property.

    * * *

    Half an hour later Mary answered her phone. It was Tod checking to see where she was and wanting to know why she hadn¡¯t visited as agreed.

    ¡°Figure havin¡¯ a sniper tryin¡¯ to kill my bodyguard an¡¯ hearing the bullet go past kinda put an end to any visits.¡± With that she disconnected and switched off her phone.

    Tod cursed and tried to phone again only to be diverted to voicemail. He looked across at commander Meadows. ¡°Now what sir?¡±

    Meadows heard the brief call with resignation. ¡°Check with Harris, find out what he was seeing and why he attempted to take out our principal¡¯s bodyguard. You did tell him about the girl¡¯s invisible bodyguard didn¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Yes sir I did.¡± Tod toggled his communicator and waited.

    ¡°Harris reporting.¡±

    ¡°Harris, what the hell happened out there tonight?¡±

    ¡°Sir. An unknown individual came out of the Kato property and two unknowns appeared close to the principal and opened up in full auto. I attempted to stop a murder.¡±

    ¡°Harris, you were informed about our principal¡¯s bodyguards, why did you shoot them?¡±

    ¡°Sir, they used excessive force against an unarmed man.¡±

    ¡°Damn it our principal doesn¡¯t trust us any more and that ¡®unarmed man¡¯ is a vampire and he is still moving. At least you missed the bodyguard.¡±

    ¡°Yes sir, but I¡¯m sure my bullet was deflected somehow.¡±

    Commander Meadows sighed. ¡°Get us another sniper. Harris will have to explain himself to command. I¡¯ve got to go and try to reassure Mary and her mother.¡± Meadows turned to lieutenant Partlow, ¡°well, time to make amends and introduce ourselves to the neighbours. Come Anna, time to pretend to be husband and wife.¡±

 Chapter 70

    Mary watched the two individuals she had invited to this meeting as they arrived. Both bowed briefly to the altar before approaching. Baron Helder¡¯tron was precise to a pin and had obviously taken great care with his appearance. K¡¯tara for her part was looking uncomfortable in what was presumably her mother¡¯s idea of clothing suitable for a formal audience.

    Mary leant back in her comfortable chair as she examined the two very different people, she smiled as she confirmed her initial impression of their ¨C their mind glows? Yes that term would do nicely.

    ? Allow me to wish both of you a belated welcome to my realm. I do hope you have found it to your taste. ? Then she conjured up a couple of comfortable chairs. ? Please sit, make yourselves comfortable. ?

    Baron Helder¡¯tron already nervous at the sight of someone sitting at the right hand of Ocidon almost jumped when the dungeon spoke in his mind. He noted absently that the young woman who had accompanied him to this audience did jump.

    K¡¯tara dropped into her chair, her brain whirling aimlessly. She found it hard to believe that she was in the actual presence of the notorious dungeon that was turning the lands around the great ocean upside down.

    Baron Helder¡¯tron sat down carefully and looked at his liege.

    Mary stirred, ¡°I need ambassadors, or rather,¡± she smiled, ¡°agents to steer my policy. Right now I have in the ruins of Port Gull the agents and factors of numerous states in their embassy. None of the states has dared send a ship to rescue or supply them. So I¡¯ll be sending you to make contact and deliver much needed supplies in an armed merchantman. You will have the use of a few squads of marines.¡±

    Mary watched the stunned look on K¡¯tara¡¯s face and suppressed a grin. Helder¡¯tron for his part looked thoughtful.

    ¡°Interesting. What authority would we have?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯d be my ambassador plenipotentiary. You¡¯d speak with my voice. And you¡¯ll have gold and pearls. I want to turn Port Gull into a free port. No tariffs just a moderate docking fee. Then you would have to sail round re-establishing contact with all the interested parties and repatriating the uninterested. The Luvarian Empire will probably be the most important link. But you will be the ones on the spot, so it will be up to you.¡±

    Helder¡¯tron narrowed his eyes in thought. ¡°Mmm, yes I can do that. What about... I¡¯m sorry, but what¡¯s your name? I¡¯m Helder¡¯tron.¡±

    ¡°K¡¯tara,¡± squeaked K¡¯tara.

    ¡°K¡¯tara? And crass as this sounds what are we going to get out of this?¡±

    ¡°K¡¯tara will be your aide, she has the necessary abilities and attitude but needs confidence and experience. And to get out from under her parents thumbs. As for rewards, a nice title, a comfortable little palace and gold, well pearls and gems mostly. I¡¯ll leave you to convert them into gold. K¡¯tara will be rewarded less lavishly at first but she¡¯ll still get the palace.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Despite his hunger pains Haanfar gave the rat he had just caught to his sister Haanela and watched her devour it in a few bites. He smiled ruefully as she used her tongue to clean her face, and incidentally ensure that every scrap of the rat got eaten.

    ¡°I¡¯m still hongwy Han,¡± she proclaimed with her big green begging eyes.

    Han sighed, ¡°I know Nel, we¡¯ll have to catch a few more. At least there are a lot of them. Ready to hunt?¡±

    ¡°Yesh Han,¡± Nel agreed with gently waving tail.

    Han watched his baby sister trot by his side, she was still clumsy and uncertain on her feet so not much help in the hunt but he dared not leave her alone in this cesspit of a city. At least there were lots of rats and the humans tended to turn their noses up at them.

    They were skirting the river market when he was distracted by a surprisingly attractive smell. He froze and looked at one of the shops for rent that surrounded the market. It was closed which was downright odd at this time of day. Then seeing his sister pushing the door open and heading into the shop he darted after. He was in time to see his sister grab one of the small cakes on the counter and stuff it into her mouth.

    Han looked round the room and his eye was caught by a golden brooch on a workbench. He couldn¡¯t resist and he touched it.

    Nel finished the cakes and licked her face clean of the cream. Then she saw her brother in front of a wooden bench. He wasn¡¯t moving. She toddled over and grabbed his shirt.

    * * *

    Rickie returned from lunch with a heavy purse. Luf¡¯dorian had been very generous. Now he had to complete one more amulet and his commission would be completed. He found the door to the shop he had hired open. Damn cheap locks. He checked that his sword was loose in its scabbard and stepped into his temporary workshop.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Well his cream cakes were gone but the intruders weren¡¯t. He examined the two leopard beastfolk children. The little one was very young, he had no experience with children that small, he thought that that one might be all of three years old, and far too thin. The other was even thinner which suggested he might be small for his age.

    ¡®Why am I speculating? Let us evaluate!¡¯ Rickie concentrated, ¡®Right the girl is three and the boy nine! Damn it I can¡¯t just throw them out. I wouldn¡¯t be able to live with myself. At least I can afford to take them on and Mother would approve.¡¯

    Rickie left his temporary shop with a basket and locked the door behind himself. He wandered round the market and bought several protein heavy meals not forgetting cream cakes. Then he picked up some second hand clothes for his involuntary guests before letting himself back into his shop. And once again he locked the door.

    Then he bowed his head before his little shrine and prayed.

    ? Oh Rickie what a tangle, yeah I have leopard ¡®folk, other me needed some rather specialised bodyguards. You sure you want them to go down that route? ?

    ¡°If it would make them more likely to survive, then yes.¡±

    ? If you can reign in their enthusiasm then yes. Actually, even if you can¡¯t. ?

    Rickie sighed again. Then he dragged over a chair and sat down in front of the two frozen kids before releasing them from the magic that held them.

    The girl started to say something but on spotting Rickie she hid behind her brother while holding on to his legs. Han jumped as the seated prosperous looking catman had suddenly appeared in front of him.

    ¡°Has no one ever told you not to touch an enchanter¡¯s things? I could use a runner. Interested?¡±

    Han licked his lips nervously as his eyes darted around the room.

    Rickie dipped his hand into the basket that was sitting by his feet and then looked at Nel and offered her half a grilled chicken, ¡°do you want some chicken? What¡¯s your name?¡±

    Nel watched the chicken with wide eyes her nostrils flaring before darting from behind her brother and grabbing the offered treat. ¡°¡¯m Nel.¡±

    Rickie smiled then produced another half chicken and offered it, ¡°well boy, eat. And what is your name?¡±

    Han watched his sister devour her chicken and snatched the offered meal. ¡°Thanks Mr, m¡¯Han, um Haanfar and my sister is Haanela.¡±

    Rickie placed more food on the workbench. ¡°And I¡¯m Rickie. Tuck in.¡±

    When the three had finished eating Rickie produced the cream cakes.

    ¡°¡¯Snot fair I¡¯s full.¡± Complained Nel wistfully eying the cakes.

    ¡°Come, let me introduce you to Mother.¡± Rickie stood and moved to face his shrine trailed, somewhat reluctantly by his guests.

    ? Welcome Haanela, Haanfar. Rickie has told me a few things about you. Hey Rickie do you want to adopt these two or just employ them? ?

    Nel gazed at the carved dolphin over the tiny altar with wide eyes while Han dropped to his knees and bowed his head stunned at the thought that he was hearing a goddess.

    ? ¡®M not a goddess Han, I¡¯ll admit to demi-goddess but not goddess. Yet. ?

    ¡°I¡¯m willing to adopt them Mother. But that depends on them, or at least on Han.¡±

    Han jerked his head up and down in a jerky nod.

    ? Good. I declare this adoption to have been concluded. Hey Bluey do your thing, you know update their status and make ¡®em real leopard ¡®folk. ?

    ? Done and Done! o Blackbeard¡¯s Bane. ?

    ? Wha... Beep Bluey I really don¡¯t need another title now. ?

    ? You earned it Mother of Monsters. ? *smug*

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    The old white haired man stumbled out of the airliner and peered around with his customary insatiable curiosity. He strode towards passport control and presented his documents. Pac?me H¨¦g¨¦sippe Ad¨¦lard Ladislas de Champignac had arrived to poke his not inconsiderable nose into the source of the world¡¯s resurrected dinosaurs.

    He begrudged the time it took to deposit his bags in his hotel before taking a taxi to the park that contained the underground structure he had been studying at a distance for the past month.

    As the Comte de Champignac was passing a bench in front of the duckpond his head turned and his eyes locked on a patch of grass near the bench. He stopped for an instant before moving towards the circular patch of grey spotted scarlet mushrooms. He bent down and picked one carefully before straightening, holding it up and examining it carefully through a large old fashioned magnifying glass.

    Then Champignac gathered all the mushrooms carefully before searching round for more. Finally realizing that there were no more to be found he turned and returned to his hotel where he dug out a collection of beakers and other tools of his trade before producing the mushrooms and spending hours distilling and experimenting.

    The Comte de Champignac came up with two new potions and got chucked out of the hotel because of the mess he made of his room.

    * * * INTERLUDE 3 * * *

    ¡°Are you sure this is a good time for that sir?¡± asked Tod.

    ¡°No choice Tod. How I¡¯m expected to befriend and earn the trust of our principal and at the same time spy on her and figure out everything she can do that is of interest to our country I don¡¯t know. Then we have to protect her while two other teams have the same mandate and don¡¯t answer to me. And there are only five of us.¡± He sighed, ¡°Time for abject apologies and hoping for the best.¡±

    Commander Meadows and lieutenant Partlow left the house and headed past the new crime scene, and made their way to their principal¡¯s home.

    They were welcomed and offered drinks. Mary and her mother watched them warily and listened to their explanations and excuses.

    ¡°If any sniper takes a shot at me or one of my guards again I will unleash my people. And be aware if you are guardin¡¯ me at the time I will count you as one of my guards.¡±

    ¡°Please don¡¯t take any impulsive action Mary, I know it¡¯s difficult but...¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been targeted twice by agent¡¯s of our government an¡¯ once by people unknown. If I don¡¯t retaliate I those who are willin¡¯ to shoot me will succeed at some point.¡±

    ¡°It won¡¯t happen again Mary.¡±

    ¡°Nuts. I think I can trust you and your team. Bet the sniper didn¡¯t answer to you. You can¡¯t guarantee anything ¡®xcept there are creeps out there willin¡¯ an¡¯ able to throw you under the bus.¡±

    ¡°Please don¡¯t be hasty Mary. Can you make it over to Pearl on Saturday?¡±

    ¡°Maybe. If my boat¡¯s ready yeah. Not getting back in one of those cramped flyin¡¯ tin cans again.¡±

    Meadows grinned ruefully. ¡°Oh I¡¯m sure it will be ready to pick up on Saturday. Can I give you a lift down?¡±

    Mary looked at the two navy people. ¡°Wanna ride in my baby?¡±

    Meadows looked guilty. ¡°Please.¡±

 Chapter 71

    Haas-Jucar and his chief of staff watched from the tower of the Embassies building as a brigantine put into the harbour of what had been Port Gull. A few of the other factors and ambassadors appeared on the fortified tower as news of the new arrival spread through the building. They were all looking somewhat gaunter than they had just over two months ago when the old fortress city had fallen.

    ¡°Shall we go down and meet them or should we wait for them to come to us?¡± asked Velgor the factor representing Tarasand.

    ¡°I really feel we should wait for them to approach us but somehow I don¡¯t think we are important enough any longer. I vote we send a delegation to meet them and see if we can work something out about passage home.¡±

    Haas-Jucar watched the ship work its way towards one of the least cluttered piers. ¡°Much as I hate to admit it, I agree with you Var-trand. And thankfully there aren¡¯t enough people on that ship for it to be a pirate.¡±

    Shortly the roof of the tower was empty and a gaggle of factors and junior ambassadors left the Embassies building escorted by a handful of guards and worked their way down to the harbour. They arrived to find the ship docked and four liveried guards guarding the pier.

    ¡°Blue Lagoon,¡± murmured Velgor. ¡°That¡¯s Tomcat¡¯s ship.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that Velgor, who¡¯s Tomcat?¡± asked Haas-Jucar.

    ¡°He¡¯s a cat beastfolk, captain of that ship and rep of the Silver Dolphin shipping company. He¡¯s also a shameless philanderer.¡±

    ¡°Well considering where we are he¡¯s not going to find many opportunities for that. So you think he¡¯ll be reasonable?¡±

    ¡°Depends. He is very loyal to his mother and will invariably do what she wants.¡±

    ¡°His mother? What has she to do with this?¡±

    ¡°She is the owner of the Silver Dolphin company.¡±

    ¡°Ah.¡±

    The assembled dignitaries watched as a handful of well-dressed people descended the gangplank and gathered behind a middle aged man and a young woman. Long experience allowed them to recognise a diplomat, his assistant and staff. They almost unconsciously formed up in order of importance as they waited.

    The delegations met, exchanged polite nothings and moved aboard the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory where refreshments were served and Count Helder¡¯tron got down to business ably assisted by Baroness K¡¯tara. The meeting was resumed on the following day at the Embassies building. A tentative agreement was reached as most present could see the advantage of Port Gull as a commercial hub open to all.

    Over half those present wished to be repatriated and this was agreed to.

    * * *

    ¡°Well Tomcat you¡¯re heading north. And it looks like you¡¯ll be crowded. We¡¯ll remain behind for now and head south to the Empire on the next ship.¡±

    ¡°Aye, that¡¯ll most likely be the Blue Wyvern.¡± Agreed Tomcat as he leaned on the rail of his quarterdeck and watched the assorted diplomats boarding his pride and joy. ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong Helder, but this lot look remarkably young and fit for diplomats and merchants.¡±

    Count Helder¡¯tron smirked, ¡°you forget what this place was before Mother had it squashed. Nobody in their right minds sent female, elderly or unfit representatives here. It was a hardship post.¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    The two remained silent for a while watching the loading then Helder¡¯tron stirred. ¡°Good voyage Tomcat,¡± he said as he walked towards the gangplank. Tomcat watched him disembark and then ordered the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory to sea.

    Velgor waited until the ruins of Port Gull were disappearing behind the horizon before accosting Tomcat.

    ¡°Forgotten me old cat? So when were you planning to visit? Clarrina misses you and her father really wants a word or two with you about that present you gave her.¡±

    Tomcat froze momentarily before turning, ¡°Velgor! What are you doing here? Do you mean Clarrina¡¯s ...¡±

    ¡°Pregnant? Yes Tomcat she is. Very much so.¡±

    * * *

    Mary looked round with interest, she was floating beside Ocidon in what seemed to be a limitless crystal clear ocean. Also present were five other gods and goddesses. She recognised Hel-Arlizzy and Bordianna the harvest maid.

    ? Be welcome all, may I make you known to my consort Mary Silvestre. Mary you know Hel-Arlizzy, the others are Zoratus the sage, Bordianna the harvest maid, Plutonis, and Varina the Defender. ?

    There was a general murmur of approval and a certain amount of manoeuvring for precedence before Zoratus intervened.

    ? Things have started well. Our opponents have blundered and scored several self inflicted wounds on themselves. While Vortexius Blackbeard is much diminished he is still more powerful than some of us. I suspect Ice Heart is currently the most vulnerable of the new gods. Paradoxically Frost King though diminished is actually more formidable now than before his mishap as most of his negative qualities ended up as part of Ice Heart. ?

    Bordianna radiated benevolence and smiled. ? So you¡¯re saying Ice Heart is ripe for the harvest. By all means lets destroy him. Frost King and now Ice Heart are destroying too many of my harvests. ?

    ? Can you keep yourself hidden Hel-Arlizzy, should the new gods attempt to retaliate? ?

    Hel-Arlizzy looked round somewhat nervously. ? With your help, yes. Without help, no chance. ?

    The harvest maid smiled. ? Good. Ice Heart first. Then we will see. Now Mary dear, that underground dwarf wheat you created for your rat people. That was naughty of you, wheat belongs to ME after all. ?

    Mary blinked in surprise, ? You¡¯re welcome to it Bordianna so long as my folk can grow it. My man-rats prayed to me asking for a new food source. ?

    Mary felt something pass from her to the harvest maid.

    * * * INTERLUDE * * *

    Tod gripped the rail of the as the yet unnamed sports cruiser entered the domain of a dungeon he had come to recognise. He remembered Mary casually waving out to sea but he had not truly believed her until now.

    Mary throttled back her new toy and concentrated, linking to her core. She slowly stretched the hull by about a meter to better handle the current passenger load, then her sports cruiser settled slightly in the water as the placeholder core hiding in the fibreglass sandwich mutated into an advanced composite armour.

    Mary smiled slightly on noting Tod¡¯s discomfort. Meadows for his part was watching the coast through his binoculars. She stroked the console and fed manna into the inbuilt enchantments.

    Then she slowly brought her toy up to full power while changing her lines very slightly.

    After running the motors on full for half an hour she throttled back to the recommended maximum cruising power and relaxed.

    * * *

    ¡°Mama, you want to pilot her for a bit?¡±

    ¡°Later dear, when we don¡¯t have the navy on board.¡±

    Mary chuckled. ¡°Hey commander, how ¡®bout you? Want a go?¡±

    Meadows had not missed the fact that the sports cruiser he was on had grown slightly to accommodate its passengers or that it seemed to have gained mass while idling off the coast. He had also noted that Tod had seemed uncomfortable. But he was unable to resist a chance to see how the boat handled.

    Commander Meadows was impressed by how the big boat handled. He was enjoying himself as he tested her limits. The speed gauge was hovering at forty-five knots while the motors running at the recomended cruising speed.

    All too soon Mary passed him a plastic bag and took over the controls again. ¡°Think I¡¯ll call her Wave Dancer. And then again maybe not.¡± She looked at Meadows, ¡°not too friendly sticking those things all over, I suspect most aren¡¯t yours but some of ¡®em are.¡±

    Meadows opened the bag and examined an eclectic collection of bugs and trackers. He sighed and passed the bag to lieutenant Partlow. ¡°Any chance we can identify those?¡±

    Anna Partlow looked through the collection, ¡°I think a couple are Chinese, one of these certainly wants to be mistaken for Russian but it doesn¡¯t look that much like the Russian one. The rest, no idea.¡±

 Chapter 72

    Mary watched as the old gods left winking out one by one. She kept her senses on one spot and heard Ocidon chuckle. Zoratus the sage looking irked rematerialized.

    ? I will be visiting you youngster, you have knowledge I want. Huh, next time we meet in a water free environment. ?

    Then after another irritated look at a highly amused Ocidon he too left.

    ? So Ocidon, I thought our agreement was allies, why consort and how have I ended up ascendin¡¯ to demi-godhood? ?

    ? We triggered the prophecy. That led to the gods war starting. Then I needed help and we humbled Blackbeard and the System and Prophesy acted to... Well to be honest I¡¯m not certain what they did or didn¡¯t do but the influx of divine manna coupled with the Prophesy... Well I acknowledged you as my consort. It gave us the best chance of saving Parthia and ourselves. ?

    ? I don¡¯t really want to end up a goddess, you lot have too many limitations and rules. ?

    ? Us lot Mary. If Ice Heart is destroyed with your help and you keep frustrating Vortexius Blackbeard then you will ascend. And then we will have a good chance of winning. Especially if we can detach one of the new gods to our side. ?

    Mary looked unsmilingly at Ocidon. ? Beep! ... Oh beep the System! ... ¡®K then, I don¡¯t like it but livin¡¯ on an Ice Ball would be far worse. What ¡®bout the other worlds? ?

    ? Hard to say, but we might be able to help their old gods to save their people. There is a chance they might try to get in contact when they learn the Prophesy has been triggered. ?

    ? So, Ice Heart next? Maybe I should have a chat with Penguintopia. Bet that one¡¯s from Earth too. ?

    ? You should have a chat with my priests and your voice. I suspect you need to talk with Victoria too. I suspect that like me you are going to need two priesthoods. Water and Land. ?

    ? Where can I get hold a copy of this Prophesy? ?

    ? Talk to my priests. Warn yours about Bordianna the harvest maid and Zoratus the sage because their priests are going to start turning up. I suggest you don¡¯t allow your Mock Turtle transport system kill them should they be reckless and decide to use it. ?

    ? Good point. See you ¡®round. ?

    And then there was only Ocidon. He grinned ruefully, ¡®that went better than I expected. The next step is going to be far trickier ... but we¡¯ve got time now.¡¯

    Then the meeting place of the old gods was empty.

    * * *

    Alessandrina woke from a comfortable dream that left her feeling happy. She knew what she had to do so she got up fed her cats disposed of their two offerings and went to find her parents.

    She found them having breakfast with her brother. She smiled, and joined them. ¡°¡¯Morning, I have a message for you from Mary Silvestre. Will you please be present for a formal meeting regarding the future. It will take place in the little bay on the seawards coast of the children¡¯s island at noon today.¡±

    ¡°What bay?¡± asked Viriaathos, ¡°and who else will be present?¡±Stolen novel; please report.

    ¡°The new bay near the fairy tale dungeon. Me, you, Mary, Trisha and the temple bigwigs.¡±

    Rhondaa blinked in surprise, ¡°Alessandrina, show some respect for you elders please. Bigwigs indeed!¡±

    Drina finished bolting down her breakfast and rose from the table, ¡°please excuse me I have lots of people to see about this meeting.¡±

    Drina discovered that Danilus Oakborn was taking the morning service at the temple so she accosted Annoraa the Fair next. She left her feeling a bit bemused, Annoraa just found idea of a child as the Voice jarring. Nevertheless she agreed to be at the meeting.

    Rafael Twiceborn was next, Drina found him inspecting the guard on the seaward tower. ¡°Hi Rafe,¡± she said with a wide mischievous grin, ¡°Mary Silvestre wants you at a meeting at noon today. She wants to discuss the future with you lot. Please be at the bay on the seaward side of the children¡¯s island.¡±

    Rafael choked while his two guards fought to hide their amusement.

    ¡°Bye Rafe, see ya there,¡± and with that and a giggle she skipped down the tower stairs, and raced to dive into the lagoon. Then she was swimming towards the temples.

    Drina found Danilus Oakborn making his way back to his office and gave him the message. Danilus for his part sensed a subtle change in his friends¡¯ daughter and he examined her carefully even as he agreed to be present at the meeting. He watched as the girl dove and headed towards the undersea temple.

    Drina found Altor Seaswept meditating in his temple and waited for him to emerge from his trance. Then she passed him her message.

    * * *

    Tomcat worked his beloved Alessandrina¡¯s Glory north along the former Pirate Coast and across the Sarmad channel to the southern coast of the continent of Nordland. There were two stops before Tarasand. At both people disembarked gratefully with official letters from Blue Lagoon.

    Tarasand was different, Tomcat navigated the numerous rocky reefs and tied up at the sunken city¡¯s commercial docks. He gazed somewhat apprehensively at the numerous buildings that seemed to rise from the sea itself.

    Velgor accepted the letter containing Blue Lagoons offer from Tomcat. ¡°I¡¯ll see this delivered and I¡¯ll be back shortly with the family matriarch. And I suspect with Clarrina and her father. Don¡¯t vanish Tomcat or things will not go well for you.¡±

    Tomcat sighed, his tail drooping slightly. ¡°Very well, but I can¡¯t wait too long, I still have a lot of deliveries.¡±

    ¡°Understood, but you would do well to wait.¡±

    No sooner had Velgor left than one of the local priests of Ocidon came aboard and invited him to visit the local temple. Tomcat cocked his head to one side, opened his mouth and closed it again. Then he turned to his first mate and said. ¡°George, will you please ask Velgor and whoever arrives with him to wait as I¡¯ve been ordered to visit the temple of Ocidon.¡±

    ¡°And of his consort Mary Silvestre,¡± added the priest.

    ¡°What he said,¡± agreed Tomcat before climbing on his ship¡¯s rail and diving into the harbour. Tomcat was followed by the priest. The two of them made their way deeper into the underwater part of the city where they entered the temple and were met by the local high priest.

    George, tail wagging looked round. ¡°Hey break out the grog, lets have a toast for Mother.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE * * *

    They arrived sooner anyone expected and Commander Meadows arranged for a berth, or rather he cleared them for the prearranged berth.

    Mary verified that her toy was properly berthed and along with her mother accompanied several officers to yet another meeting.

    Meadows and his crew went to report to their superior. Lieutenant Partlow handed over the bag of bugs to the security officer.

    Then, standing at ease in front of the Captain¡¯s desk they were examined by Captain Gallows. ¡°Sit, sit. Now tell me what the hell you think you are doing. What do you mean by dismissing personnel that do not answer to you?¡±

    ¡°He nearly shot our principal, master sergeant Tod had informed us of the girl¡¯s bodyguard and he damn near killed her to protect a vampire! How am I to gain her trust if that over eager idiot remains?¡±

    ¡°Your job is to command the close in detail. That alleged bodyguard has not been vetted so is not to be trusted. Gain her trust Meadows. Should be easy enough. She¡¯s young enough to be gullible.¡±

    Meadows despaired. ¡°Is that overeager idiot still on the protection detail?¡±

    ¡°Yes. He¡¯s our best sniper after all.¡±

    ¡°Why all the bugs, that didn¡¯t help either.¡±

    ¡°She missed one. So she¡¯s not as smart as she thinks. Do better Commander. Dismissed.¡±

    * * *

    That evening in her room at a local hotel Mary spoke with Tessa and Lissa. Then the three went for a stroll cloaked by the leopard girls cloaking magic. They visited a few locations on the base and Mary increased her collection interesting templates. They arrived back at the hotel near dawn.

 Chapter 73

    Victoria woke with a smile, and then she fed and cleaned her daughters. Played with them and, reluctantly, handed them over to their nursemaid. She made her way up towards Garonmouth proper and after a careful look entered the luxurious human scaled room. There she stripped and triggered her growth enchantment.

    She smiled at her reflection in the mirror, admiring her trim figure and six perky breasts. Victoria opened her wardrobe and proceeded to don a gold embroidered silk gown. She reached up and tugged the red silk cord hanging to the right of the door and noted with approval the sound of the silver bell in the other room.

    A solid looking badger folk wearing silvery chainmail under a blue tabard opened the door. ¡°Good morning ma¡¯am. Where are we going today?¡±

    ¡°To the temple Oscar.¡±

    * * *

    A pale blue eyed dolphin accompanied by a young sea sprite awaited her people floating in the sheltered bay as waves broke on the sheltering reef.

    The first to arrive were Drina and Jaasoon Sunhigh. Drina squealed with glee, discarded her robe and dove into the bay and swam out to Mary. Jaasoon for his part sat on the beach and waited.

    All those invited arrived before the stated time, and Mary felt a temporary link form with Victoria and Tomcat each currently meditating in a temple of Ocidon under the auspices of a priest.

    ? Welcome all. Bein¡¯ somewhat dense ¡®bout these things I suspect you all know most of what I have to say. So yeah, I am the acknowledged consort of Ocidon. ?

    There were some smirks and Drina giggled.

    ? Yeah, yeah. Laugh, ¡®cause I was the last to know. Second ¡®cordin¡¯ to Ocidon I¡¯m a pukka demi-goddess. ? Mary paused to allow for some more snickers. ? And assendin¡¯ will be a full goddess beep it! Thanks to the prophecy only way we, me an¡¯ Ocidon that is can survive the gods war is if I assend. ?

    She took in the smirks. So still no news. Once again she had been the last to know.

    ? Apparently I need a priesthood. That means you Alessandrina. ? Drina choked and her eyes opened wide. ? Gotta have to have two priesthoods like Ocidon, but doin¡¯ it different. You my little mermaid are gonna be my voice an¡¯ high priestess. Still got time but you¡¯re into more lessons dearheart. ?

    Danilus facepalmed and sighed.

    ? Pete, you up to leading the underwater priesthood? ?

    ? Erm. Yes I think so Mother. It¡¯s a great honour. Erm, Altor do you mind giving me some herrp. ?

    ¡°Happily Pete, come round to the temple whenever you want and we¡¯ll talk.¡±

    ? Good. Victoria, you up to bein¡¯ my high priestess to the landfolk, an¡¯ you Thomas, my high priest to the sailors and merchants? ?

    ? Yes Mother. ? smiled Victoria.

    ? Me Mother? But ¨C but what about? Erm... ?

    ? Your girls Tomas? You have done right by them so far. You just have to hurry up and gather them up quickly. And don¡¯t forget the new one in Garonmouth. ?

    ? New one? Oh...! Well, if you¡¯re sure Mother, I¡¯ll do it. ?

    ? Good ... ? The dolphin seemed to glow aa a glowing blue streamer connected it to Alessandrina and Alessandrina to Pete, Victoria and Tomcat. ? ... Whoo! That was quite a rush! ?

    ? And now there¡¯s no going back my dear. This step was irrevocable. ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    It was a cold dreary overcast day in Redmond. There was the odd snowflake drifting on the wind. The trees were bare and seemed to be clutching at the sky with skeletal fingers.

    Logan however was running for his life. They were after him again and Timothy Brooks was leading the pack as usual. Logan was getting short of breath and a stitch was starting to form in his side. Then he saw it. St Anthony¡¯s was just up ahead.

    He sobbed in desperation. Oh god, how he hoped this would work. It had seemed like a good idea at the time but he had quickly come to realize real life was nothing like his favourite videogames. Logan ran, staggering slightly into the graveyard and fled across the neatly manicured grass as he threaded his way around the headstones towards the cluster of mausoleums against the far wall.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    His tormentors howled with triumph as they saw their victim stagger and slow.

    ¡®Come ¨C come ¨C come ¨C raise up ¨C save me ¨C pleeease!¡¯ Logan poured manna into his spells and collapsed at the foot of the statue of an angel holding a book.

    ¡°We¡¯ve got the little shit now!¡± bayed Timothy or Snake as he was known to his friends. They stopped running and spread out with nasty grins.

    The door of the nearest mausoleum creaked open and three decaying figures shuffled out. Two were holding rusty shovels and the third had a large carving knife. Behind the bullies four graves stirred as bones started to emerge. By the time the teenagers had realized that they faced zombies four skeletons finished assembling themselves and clicking softly stalked towards them.

    ¡°Zombies!¡± wailed Rick as he staggered back in horror right into the arms of one of the skeletons. It promptly bit him in the back of the neck while scrabbling at his throat with its bony fingers.

    Frank froze in shock as he saw the skeleton attack his cousin and screamed when he saw blood fountain out of Rick¡¯s throat as the skeleton clawed his throat open. Then Frank knew no more as a shovel smashed into the back of his head.

    Snake fled, closely followed by his remaining friend. Seeing them run the skeletons chased after them, almost seeming to flow over the ground. The zombies followed but quickly fell behind. Despite that the zombies followed the magical link that tied them to their targets.

    Logan raised himself and staggered into the church where he collapsed sobbing into a pew.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Commander Meadows and his detail disembarked at the marina and nodded to Mary who was on the pier waiting. Then the motors on the newly named Storm Dolphin revved and Mary jumped back aboard with a very insincere sounding ¡°sorry¡±.

    Tod reversed course but was too late as the big boat with water boiling at her stern and to a lesser extent at her bow twisted away from the pier and tore off at a ever increasing rate of knots with Mary standing near the stern waving goodbye while a leopard girl manned the controls and a second dumped what Meadows strongly suspected were more bugs overboard.

    Lieutenant Partlow cursed as she hauled out her tablet and checked their status regarding the Storm Dolphin. ¡°Just the one bug again, the one that¡¯s part of the GPS system by the con. What do you bet that she knows about it?¡±

    ¡°No bet.¡± Tod looked at the huge wake in the calm waters of the bay, ¡°Just how fast is she going? I don¡¯t think we ever went that fast.¡±

    ¡°Fifty-six knots and climbing,¡± relied Partlow.

    ¡°Well the drone will keep an eye on her,¡± mused Meadows as he watched one of their drones go by overhead.

    * * *

    Mary sprawled on her swivel chair in the rear of the cockpit and grinned widely at her mother. ¡°Hey mama, ¡®bout time I let you in on a couple of secrets. Don¡¯ speak anything you don¡¯ want known on the bridge. The GPS system is bugged, though funnily enough it¡¯s buggy an¡¯ prone to failin¡¯ at irregular intervals. Got two drones shadowin¡¯ us.¡±

    ¡°Mary Jane Silvestre. What are you playing at? I thought we were going to play along with the authorities.¡±

    ¡°Sorry mama but that won¡¯ work. Got info suggestin¡¯ several agencies are jockeyin¡¯ for position. Got to knock ¡®em off balance somehow. Meadows an¡¯ his lot could be helpful. They seem sympathetic but gotta throw their bosses off balance.¡±

    ¡°Mary, please don¡¯t be rash.¡±

    Just workin¡¯ to confirm their prejudices. Yanno reckless teenager, actin¡¯ on impulse. They think they can control a gullible idealistic teen girl. So gotta try an¡¯ look like one.¡±

    ¡°Oh dear, I do wish you father hadn¡¯t had to return home when his vacation ended. So what are you planning to do?¡±

    ¡°Break out the rods an¡¯ do some fishin¡¯ to bore the pants of the drone controllers. Then go back to the marina an¡¯ act contrite. Invite everyone to a barbie. Been a while since we¡¯ve held one. Gotta invite a certain little catgirl sources tell me is pretty much addicted to tuna.¡±

    ¡°And how do you intend to get tuna?¡±

    ¡°Gonna cheat.¡±

    ¡°And you think this plan of yours will work. Do you really think the spooks are that gullible?¡±

    ¡°Most of them aren¡¯t. Captain Gallows, the idiot who¡¯s runnin¡¯ the show is. ¡®Specially if I drop a few key words in his bug¡¯s ear. Problem will be Meadows, but he¡¯s pissed at the captain so should work.¡±

    Mary relaxed when she felt her domain enfold her. The big engines roar dropped to a soft rumble and she accepted her rod from Tessa. ¡°Hey mama, wanna join me?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind if I do dear. You¡¯re being reckless again. Please get advice ... Wait, are you suggesting they¡¯ve bugged the house and that¡¯s why you didn¡¯t talk to me about...?¡±

    Mary blushed slightly. ¡°Well they have tried several times but none of their bugs have worked. Nothin¡¯ I¡¯ve been able to do about the wire taps or radio interception.¡±

    While her mother fumed silently glaring over the rear of the Storm Dolphin Mary contacted her companion.

    ? Jerica, are the sea wyverns standin¡¯ by? And where¡¯s that school of tuna we¡¯ve been herdin¡¯? ?

    ? Sally and Doug are eagerly standing by with their wyverns. You should be cutting through the school any minute now. ?

    Then the reel let go and Mary forgot everything except her favourite sport.

    * * *

    ¡°Fishing! All that for fishing. Damn the girl I thought she was smarter than that,¡± muttered lieutenant Partlow watching the feed from the drone on her tablet.

    ¡°She is. But she¡¯s playing Gallows like a fiddle. Were any of those bugs she gave us one of hers?¡± asked Tod.

    Meadows frowned. ¡°She seems prone to using magic and enchanting rather than tech so I rather doubt it.¡±

    ¡°Oh god, we¡¯re going to be here for ages they seem to have found a school of tuna,¡± complained Partlow.

    * * *

    The sun was almost touching the western horizon when Mary jumped up and proceeded to the bridge. ¡°Hey Lissa, time to go home.¡±

    Lissa flicked a switch near the wheel, ¡°¡¯K Mother.¡±

    ¡°Why is she calling you mother dear?¡±

    Tessa grinned from her corner of the bridge, ¡°Mary has two titles, Mother of Monsters was the first and we are her monsters. So Mother. Guess that makes you nana or grandma.¡±

    ¡°Beep! I keep tellin¡¯ you, you¡¯re my friends, my people. Not Monsters.¡± Asserted Mary in exasperation.

    Lissa giggled, ¡°then she¡¯s Blackbeard¡¯s Bane. She earned both titles on Parthia, wonder what she¡¯s going to earn on Earth?¡±

    Mary threw up her hands in exasperation, and after verifying that the cutout switch worked and that the bug was undergoing one of its periodic blackouts she started to explain everything to her mother.

 Chapter 74

    Tomcat clambered back aboard Alessandrina¡¯s Glory and shook himself semi-dry.

    ¡°Welcome home Cap, you¡¯ve got visitors. Nice ring by the way.¡±

    Tomcat looked at his first mate, sighed, and replied. ¡°Very well, lead me to them George.¡±

    George grinned and headed towards the captain¡¯s cabin. Tomcat regarded his wagging tail with disfavour. His stateroom was remarkably crowded as Velgor was accompanied by numerous members of his family. A subdued but visibly pregnant Clarrina was flanked by unsmiling parents and backed by several siblings.

    Tomcat regarded the disapproving crowd and Clarrina¡¯s all too visible pregnancy and cringed internally. He bowed to the assembled company and tried to think of something to say.

    ¡°I trust you will do right by my young cousin Thomas Felix,¡± said the richly dressed diminutive grey haired old woman who was somehow the focal point of the assembled company. ¡°I have been assured,¡± at this she settled a disapproving eye on an unrepentant Velgor, ¡°that you have the favour of your matriarch and besides being the captain of this peculiar ship you are the representative of your mother¡¯s shipping company.¡±

    Tomcat stiffened his spine, ¡°yes I have Mother¡¯s favour. And I am willing to the right thing by Clarrina. What do you want Clarrina?¡±

    ¡°What Clarrina wants is irrelevant youngster,¡± stated the Matriarch of the family. ¡°You will marry her, I¡¯ll have no bastards in the family. Beyond that you have two options. Either you join our family and clan or you pay Clarrina¡¯s quit claim and she joins your family and clan.¡±

    Tomcat felt the need for a drink to moisten his dry mouth. ¡°How much is the quit claim madam? Would two Royals suffice?¡±

    The matriarch narrowed her eyes while Clarrina gasped and then nodded jerkily while her mother swayed.

    ¡°Three,¡± snapped the old woman.

    Tomcat¡¯s tail tip flicked from side to side. He heard a chuckle in the back of his mind and a sense of approval. ? Take ¡®em to the temple of Occidon, Drina will be there to perform her first weddin¡¯ she¡¯ll have the Royals. ?

    ¡°Very well, three it is. If you will accompany me to the temple of Ocidon the¡ª¡± Tomcat drew in a deep breath, ¡°¡ªHigh Priestess of the Consort will perform the ceremony.¡±

    The marriage ran without a hitch, the presence of the consort grinning openly from her throne silenced any potential objections to the age of the gleeful High Priestess.

    The family Matriarch received the three royals with an unsmiling face and then passed two to the bride¡¯s mother.

    Tomcat installed his new wife in his cabin and made haste to cast off before any other complications could show up. Drina for her part found herself railroaded into holding a major ceremony for more people than she had ever seen before using the newly established gate with the temple in Maalea to return home.

    * * *

    ¡®How am I goin¡¯ to contact Penguintopia? Usin¡¯ the standard messagin¡¯ system can be less than secure. Got nothin¡¯ for the Arctic. Brrr... too cold! Orca would likely panic a penguin based dungeon. Maybe I should go with Walrus. Could use one of those new Earth based were templates as a base but without the bonding idiocy? Um, lesse, yeah but where am I gonna get a Walrus...¡¯

    ? Victoria my dear, will you please get someone to place a quest in the Adventurers guild for a healthy pair of Walruses. Offer a couple of Royals and when they turn up get them to me ASAP. ?

    ? Yes Mother. ?

    ? ¡®Nother thing Victoria. Got new enchantment, does the reverse of your growth enchantment. Suspect you¡¯ll need it when members of Bordianna the harvest maid¡¯s clergy show up to check out that underground dwarf grain you¡¯re growin¡¯. Tomcat¡¯s fetchin¡¯ you a few I had Drina pass him after his weddin¡¯. ?

    ? Wedding? ? Victoria laughed happily, ? so another of his girls caught him, good for her. ?Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    ¡°Hey Ron, look at that,¡± said Charles Morgan to his partner.

    Ron risked a quick look, swore and brought their patrol car to a halt. Two teens in letter jackets were fleeing from four skeletons. After calling the incident in, the two cops got out of their car and drew their guns. ¡°How the hell do we stop skeletons?¡± asked Ron.

    ¡°Maybe if we can destroy the skulls?¡± hazarded Charles.

    ¡°Don¡¯t think I could hit a moving skull,¡± stated Ron as he opened fire.

    Snake raced past them still closely followed by his friend. Three of the skeletons ignored the cops but the one who was trailing behind reoriented on the cops and charged them.

    After a flurry of shooting the trailing skeleton collapsed as its skull shattered under the impact of a bullet. The two cops turned just in time to see the slower of the boys fall under the three remaining skeletons. Drawing their batons they ran to render help.

    Charles knelt by the teen and gave the injured boy what help he could whilst his partner radioed for help and kept watch.

    ¡°Oh fuck! Zombies,¡± exclaimed Ron and fumbled to load his pistol as he watched the three decaying animated corpses shuffling up the road towards them. Almost sobbing Ron started shooting again. This time he was luckier or possibly the situation concentrated his awareness. He managed to destroy the heads of two of the zombies but that still left one shovel wielding monster closing in on him when his pistol once again ran dry.

    The zombie swung the shovel and Ron raised an arm to protect his head. His arm broke and he was thrown to the ground. The zombie ignored the fallen cop and focused on Charles.

    Charles had risen to his feet and prepared himself. He was surprised at how easy it proved to take down the remaining zombie with his baton. The thing had strength and it was almost impervious to damage, but it was slow!

    By the time their backup and an ambulance had arrived Gator, Snake¡¯s crony had spilled the whole story, and officer Morgan had arranged for a visit to St Anthony¡¯s.

    * * *

    When the first patrol car arrived at St Anthony¡¯s all was quiet. The two patrolmen moved in quietly alert for ambushes. They still had difficulty believing in the reports of ambulatory homicidal skeletons and zombies. Their discovery of the two bodies near the Bateman mausoleum upped the stakes.

    After the usual crime scene officers and paraphernalia had shown up they discovered Logan collapsed in the church.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    ¡°Ting.¡±

    Sandra blinked lazily and sipped at her coffee, she grimaced, yuck cold. Pushing it away she stretched and returned her attention to her monitor. Then almost surreptitiously she dug out her Smartphone and checked her latest text message.

    ¡®Barbi tomorrow. Tuna. 1700. Mary.¡¯

    Sandra licked her lips involuntarily. And quickly keyed an acceptance before returning her attention to the current status of the islands more prominent persons of interest.

    * * *

    When Sandra arrived there were already a few cars parked in the road outside the house and the delightful smell of the barbecue led her straight to the backyard. She greeted her hostess and gratefully accepted a plate with a veritable tuna steak. She wandered off into a secluded corner, her cat nature having taken over from her human nature.

    Mary watched her guests; all their neighbours were already present, including Meadows and his bunch. But she was feeling uneasy. Something was wrong.

    The garden lights came on when dusk fell, then she caught it, the presence that had been lurking outside her domain had finally edged its, no his way in. Obviously determined to keep watch on one or more of her guests.

    Ogres were bad news and unfortunately quite at home in the dark.

    ? Tessa, Lissa we have an intruder and he¡¯s hostile. An ogre. Where¡¯s that idiot sniper. ?

    ? He¡¯s upwind of us Mother. Do you want one of us to take him out? ?

    ? I¡¯ve a better idea, if he shoots at one of us he¡¯s going to hit one of the navy guys. Let¡¯s see what Gallows does then. ?

    Just then Joanne wandered up to refill her plate. Mary obliged. ¡°Joanne, warn your colleagues that there¡¯s a hostile looking Ogre watching us, he¡¯s lurking behind the rosebushes over there.¡±

    Joanne smiled, ¡°Thanks Mary.¡± Then she meandered round and told Meadows and Tod. Then she headed towards lieutenant Partlow.

    * * *

    Hutchinson crouched behind the rosebushes watching the catgirl that had been part of the reason for his downfall. She had left the far corner of the garden again and was headed towards the freak that was doing the cooking. He roared in rage and triumph and charged them.

    Mary narrowed her eyes at the charging behemoth, she grabbed Sandra by the arm and pulled her behind her. Anna Partlow drew her pistol and fell with a shattered leg.

    Mary jerked, ¡®beep! That idiot sniper had been aiming at her, my spell didn¡¯t even need to do anything. Gotta have a serious word with Gallows and that murderous little beep.¡¯

    Mary concentrated and raised a thin wall of earth at the edge of her domain to conceal her guests from the idiot sniper.

    ? Tessa, Lissa take that thing¡¯s knees out then if need be its elbows too. Wanna know who set this idiocy up. ?

    ? Damon I need you now. Got a woman that could die or lose a leg without your help. ?

    ? Coming Mother. ?

    Hutchinson screamed in wordless rage as two more mutants appeared and destroyed his knees with their assault rifles.

    * * *

    Meadows watched as his second¡¯s leg healed under the ministration of the badger man Mary had introduced as Damon. He hadn¡¯t realized until this moment how powerful healing magic could be.

 Chapter 75

    The day was refreshingly cool and Tyler was finally able to relax. He leant against the rail of the Queen of the Seas with an arm around Ava as they watched Madison race their ship flashing through the slate grey sea.

    On the quarterdeck captain Gail Stormchaser shivered despite her heavy fur coat and quilted trousers as she watched her scantily clad passengers. All she wanted at this moment was for Madison to shed her beastform and get back aboard so she could raise more sail. The sooner they got to their destination and could return to the tropics the better.

    ¡°Brrr, by Ocidon¡¯s trident but it is freezing cap.¡±

    ¡°Yes any colder and I¡¯d be in danger of having my nips frozen off.¡±

    ¡°How much further south do we have to go?¡±

    Gail looked round at the sky and sighed. ¡°Should get to Saaropolis by nightfall, but if that damn walrus maid would get her ass back abroad then we should be there shortly after noon.¡±

    ¡°So when do we head north?¡±

    ¡°As soon as we drop our passengers off. I want warmer waters before I have to go for a swim again.¡±

    ¡°Amen cap.¡±

    * * *

    The sun was low on the horizon when the Queen of the Seas docked in the commercial harbour of Saarpolis. Tyler and his ladies disembarked and quickly satisfied the local customs official that they were not carrying contraband, they paid their ¨C quite modest ¨C entry tax and Madison giggled at the face of the self important official when the Queen of the Seas promptly started to cast off.

    One elderly bespectacled white bearded dwarf clutching a large carpetbag hurried up the jetty and hailed the ship. ¡°Wait, wait, please just let me get aboard before you leave.¡±

    Captain Gail Stormchaser motioned to her mate to leave the gangplank down for a bit longer and greeted the dwarf and the officious customs officer as they came abroad. ¡°Please hurry gentlemen or you¡¯ll find yourselves heading north and discussing the cost of your passage.¡±

    ¡°But, but don¡¯t you have cargo to deliver, are you not buying goods?¡±

    ¡°No. It¡¯s too damn cold and several of us will need to take a swim within a few days. I¡¯m off north as fast as possible and next time Mother needs a delivery this far south she can send one of her other ships.¡±

    The customs officer observed the widening strip of water between the ship and the jetty and made haste to disembark.

    ¡°And you sir?¡± asked Gail of the dwarf.

    ¡°I? I¡¯m a priest of Zoratus the sage. I have orders from our High Priest to come abroad so that we, the priesthood can open relations with the priesthood of your lady.¡±

    ¡°In that case welcome abroad the Queen of the Seas. Harold show the gentledwarf to his cabin. Mother did say one of you lot might seek passage. We¡¯ll get you to Silverton, the trip¡¯s on the house.¡±

    Dorados Thunderfist removed his spectacles and polished them then he gingerly followed Harold to a surprisingly comfortable cabin. He was sure the ship shouldn¡¯t be inclined at nearly forty degrees.

    * * *

    Tyler watched the Queen of the Seas leave harbour with gathering speed as the crew raised every scrap of canvas they could in their hurry to be gone. ¡°Poor thin blooded lot, they sure are in a hurry to head north.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I bet they¡¯ll dock in Viircamouth before noon the day after tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°What! Impossible, that¡¯s a four day journey,¡± exclaimed a weathered looking individual.

    Madison grinned, ¡°Not for captain Stormchaser. Ava¡¯s right, by my calculations Gail and a handful of her crew have to breath water within three days. They¡¯ll push Queenie as hard as they can.¡±

    Ava chuckled, ¡°poor things, they were sufferin¡¯ so with the cold.¡± Then she turned to the disbelieving individual, ¡°and you sir, are?¡±Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    ¡°Your pardon madam, I¡¯m Roofan the harbour master,¡± replied Roofan while eyeing the Queen of the Seas disappearing in the evening haze. ¡°That¡¯s one fast brig but no way can they make Viircamouth in less than two days.¡±

    ¡°Pity there¡¯s no way we can check that, or I¡¯d hazard a Guilder on it,¡± stated Ava.

    Madison grabbed Tyler¡¯s arm and hugged it. ¡°C¡¯mon honey let¡¯s go and get some food. Hey Ava c¡¯mon girl, dinner awaits.¡±

    Ava smiled perfunctorily at the harbour master and followed her partners with a brief wave at the harbourmaster. ¡°Hey girl, get your claws off my man or I¡¯ll bite.¡±

    ¡°Sorry Ava,¡± replied Madison releasing Tyler¡¯s arm. ¡°But in future don¡¯t give that much attention to random males until you¡¯ve got him trained right. Mother got us the ship with the female captain for a reason.¡±

    * * *

    Shortly after dawn Tyler and his little party left town via the south gate, they made an impression in their light mithril chainmail armour and helmets. Admittedly it was partially concealed by the sea blue surcoat with its white dolphin badge but that didn¡¯t prevent the awestruck dwarf that was following them from recognising Mithril.

    Many hours later when they stopped for lunch they were surprised when the persistent dwarf that they has thought they has outdistanced and lost stumbled into their temporary campsite. Tyler looked up and gazed in resignation at the newcomer while Ava and Madison shared a look.

    ¡°Oh Fuck! It¡¯s a kid,¡± exclaimed Tyler.

    ¡°What!¡± chorused the women.

    ¡°How many winters have you known kid? Thirty?¡± asked Tyler worriedly.

    ¡°Um, are you hungry, do you want some bread and jerky?¡± inquired Madison.

    ¡°Mithril, so much Mithril. Err, yes I am. Please!¡± replied their young guest.

    Madison mutely handed him a hunk of bread and two generous strips of jerky. While the three friends shared worried looks their young guest wolfed down most of his makeshift meal. Finally, he looked at the last scrap of his jerky with a look of surprised disgust. ¡°Fish! Fish jerky?¡±

    Ava broke out into laughter and the other two quickly joined in.

    Still smiling broadly Tyler asked once again. ¡°Well kid; how old are you? And for that matter what¡¯s your name?¡±

    The youngster looked at the rest of his lunch and with a grimace polished it off, looking up and seeing that he was being regarded solemnly by three pairs of eyes. He licked his lips and reluctantly decided to reply. ¡°Err, m¡¯twenny eight...¡±

    ¡°Fuck!¡± exclaimed Tyler.

    ¡°... and m¡¯name¡¯s Xaar.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE * * *

    Lieutenant Anna Partlow couldn¡¯t stop examining her right thigh, minutes ago she wouldn¡¯t have given odds she would keep the leg. The bullet has shattered her thighbone but now ¨C now ¨C the scars were already fading and it was sound. Or almost! Damon, that kindly stocky badgerman had used magic ¨C and not the weak healing magic that many nurses and doctors had gained in the change. OK he had ordered her not to push thing for a day or two ¨C but that was nothing.

    Joanne was keeping an eye on her friend and commander. Anna kept rubbing the area that had been wounded but the only indication of the injury were the holes in Anna¡¯s bloodstained trousers and the pools of blood and scraps of bone on the floor. She looked up and examined Damon who was engaged in polishing off his second plate of tuna steaks.

    After another glance at Anna Joanne returned her attention to Mary. Tod was standing close to her as were the two well armed leopard girl twins and an upright thin faced grey hair man wearing a neat suit.

    * * *

    Mary was surprised when Professor James Moriarty strolled out of her home and came to stand at her side. She glanced at Tod who had placed himself between her avatar and the sniper. She spared a second to verify that her controls were solid before greeting her surprise visitor.

    ¡°Nice to see you James, when did...?¡±

    ¡°Recently Mother. Necessity dictated that I achieve an Avatar. Unfortunately I can only operate it in your domain.¡±

    ¡°Well James we¡¯ll have to improve your ability. Suspect it¡¯ll be very useful for us. Take it Mycroft¡¯s not interested?¡±

    Moriarty smiled thinly, ¡°Mycroft? No.¡±

    ¡°Got papers for Demon?¡±

    ¡°Yes, he¡¯s a Canadian. Other names John Fisher. What about the sniper?¡±

    ¡°Goes against the grain James, but leavin¡¯ him to the locals. Meadows is understandably upset.¡±

    ? Dig up everything you can on Captain Gallows. If he¡¯s culpable I¡¯ll have the twins deal with him. ?

    * * *

    Tod was extremely nervous and Mary wasn¡¯t helping. He¡¯d been fitfully studying about dungeons but she kept surprising him. According to his studies she should be creating a series of caves or rooms and populating them with monsters and treasure. The dungeon in the park sort of fit the pattern Mary did not. He had seen no monsters only beast people. And now James who was undeniably human called the ¡°mother of monsters¡± Mother.

    ¡°Damnit Mary, please keep a lower profile or we¡¯ll ¨C I¡¯ll be busted. I hate to think how they¡¯ll treat a dungeon considering the abilities the System claims we will develop,¡± Tod half whispered.

    Mary smiled slightly. ¡°That¡¯s why I created that thing in the park and was glad when Macquarie claimed it. Figure he¡¯s our decoy, given the number of people he¡¯s killed. Should be interestin¡¯.¡±

    Tod figured he should come clean to his commander ¨C then he blinked bemused. ¡®God I¡¯ve been standing here dreaming of nothing. Oh good Anna¡¯s leg¡¯s been healed. God what¡¯s going on? Who¡¯s the grey haired bloke standing next to Mary?¡¯

    Mary glanced him out of the corner of her eye, ¡°Good you¡¯re back with us. This is Prof James. He¡¯s a friend and very smart.¡±

    * * *

    The rest of the evening was ruined by the arrival of the EMTs and police crime units. Hutchinson was bandaged up and bundled off swearing and spewing threats left and right. It emerged he had escaped from a high security psychiatric hospital. Now he was on his way back.

    Harris for his part claimed to be following orders. He claimed he had been ordered to take down anyone who produced a weapon when in the presence of their principal. When asked why ignored the monster he replied that as an FBI director Hutchinson was obviously not a threat.

 Chapter 76

    Dorados Thunderfist removed his spectacles and polished them, something he was doing far more often than usual as the Queen of the Seas seemed to travel in a perpetual haze of flying spray. The night crew seemed to consist exclusively of cat folk. He took detailed noted for himself and his temple. Not that he really understood how this ship worked but it was new to him, thus important.

    The noon bell was sounding when the Queen of the Seas nosed her way cautiously into Viircamouth¡¯s busy harbour. Doradus was absurdly happy to be able to walk on a flat surface once more. After being assured by the first mate that they were staying overnight Dorados followed captain Stormchaser and five of her crew off the ship and noted that they were all heading for the Featherbright Seabaths run by the Featherbright family of sea elves. The thing was that Stormchased was a human as were four of her crew. There was only one blue haired elf in the group.

    Doradus Thunderfist came to a shocked halt when after a brief conversation all of them were admitted into the baths via the elven gate. ¡®Green hair, the captain has blue-green hair and those humans have green or blue! And her insistence on having to swim... A new race...¡¯

    Doradus felt light headed with excitement, he headed for his god¡¯s temple in a hurry. He had much to impart and some questions to ask.

    Doradus¡¯s arrival at the temple didn¡¯t cause much of a stir, the deputy high priest of the temple dispatched Lantina Featherbright to visit her family¡¯s baths. Her return with confirmation of the existence of sea humans did. Scribes and priests scrambled to record everything Doradus and Lantina could tell them and Zoratus the sage was consulted.

    The following morning Lantina accompanied Doradus aboard the Queen of the Seas and was granted passage by captain Gail Stormchaser. They left with the tide after loading cargo and taking on passengers.

    * * *

    Tyler led his little party back towards town so as to get rid of Xaar. ¡°Honestly Ava I can¡¯t see what you have against me growing a walrus moustache.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯d look ridiculous with something like that on your upper lip. I¡¯ll make you regret it if you try.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s a walrus moustache?¡± asked Xaar.

    Madison grinned, ¡°Imagine a venerable dwarf with a really bushy beard, then imagine some enemy of his caught him and shaved his face clean except for his upper lip. That¡¯s a walrus moustache.¡±

    Xaar looked horrified as he clasped his hands to his face as if to protect the scraggly beginnings of his beard.

    Ava broke out into laughter, ¡°don¡¯t worry, we have no designs on your beard Xaar.¡±

    Tyler slowed, ¡°Hey look, we have company coming.¡±

    The others looked in the indicated direction and Xaar squealed, ¡°Father! Uncle Bloodaxe!¡± before dashing towards his irate looking relatives.

    Tyler looked at Ava, Madison looked at them both. Then they eyed the irate looking dwarves. ¡°Bloodaxe,¡± murmured Ava.

    ¡°Let¡¯s leave the seven dwarves to it and scarper,¡± suggested Madison.

    ¡°There are more than seven,¡± stated Tyler. ¡°But I agree, time to go.¡±This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°Seven sounds better somehow,¡± asserted Madison as she joined her friends in their withdrawal.

    * * *

    ¡°Father, Uncle, they have Mithril! Mithril pants, mithril shirts and helmets and swords and knives,¡± Xaar shouted excitedly as he came running up and threw himself at his father. ¡°They drink water! And eat Fish jerky! But they have Mithril.¡±

    ¡°Xaar, what did those strangers want with you? Are you all right? Just wait here and we¡¯ll go and slaughter those dwarfnappers.¡±

    The other dwarves forged past father and son with brief grunts of encouragement and agreement, greed shining in their eyes.

    ¡°But father.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry son we¡¯ll give you a finders fee. Maybe one of those daggers,¡± Raax Foefinder shook off his son and pounded after his friends and family.

    Xaar stood looking after his father and his friends looking lost. ¡°But, but...¡±

    * * *

    ¡°Damn it they¡¯re still coming, they left the kid behind and the way they¡¯re brandishing their weapons they mean us no good,¡± said Tyler. ¡°And sorry Madison, but there are definitely nine of them and not seven.¡±

    The three continued to head for the coast slowly opening the gap between themselves and the dwarven warband.

    = = O = =

    Mary looked around, she seemed to be surrounded by clear, somehow luminous water. She concentrated on the thread connecting herself to herself and watched as it grew stronger. Beside it, entwined with it there was another thread linking her domain with her domain.

    She studied the link, the bridge ¨C tunnel ¨C gate or whatever it was that was striving to link ¨C join ¨C merge her domain. She could feel herself study this phenomena from both sides and they ¨C she felt the moment of establishment.

    Then Jerica¡¯s mother and the sea sprites who sought adventure in another world touched the dome ¨C gate in the deeps and slid through. The gate ¨C dome shrank to almost nonexistence but it didn¡¯t disappear. The link remained.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Tod was studying. The system had loads of information relating to dungeons, but a fair amount was downright contradictory. The ¡®general knowledge¡¯ available to all was downright treacherous, nothing it was actually false as far as he could see but... But someone who accepted it at face value would be in deep shit.

    Then there was the vast collection of data and functions restricted to dungeons. As far as he could see that abomination in the park fit right in. caverns, monsters, treasure all paid for by the death of sentients. As far as he could see Mary¡¯s dungeon did not fit in any way shape or form.

    Then there was the apparently as yet unused dungeon blog, the Dungeon Exchange channel that seemed to allow for messaging, with separate channels for advertising and exchanges. It also had a list of all the dungeons present on Earth. There were currently five dungeons and fourteen proto-dungeons of which he was one.

    Mary¡¯s entry was mostly question marks ¨C as in fact they all were ¨C but it was in own category. Godlike and that made his hair stand on end. Blue Lagoon (dual) ¨C Mary Silvestre and Jerica (sea sprite) ¨C ???, ???, USA and ocean.

    The Veteran and Elite slots were empty them there was one ranked Master. Winter Wolf (dual) ¨C Linny Thomas and MacLeod (redcap) ¨C Bismark, North Dakota, USA.

    Two dungeons were ranked Journeyman and one Apprentice.

    The Journeyman dungeons were: Dinosaur Caves ¨C Dr Charles Macquarie and unnamed (huaka¡®i po) ¨C Maalea, Maui, USA. And: Drop Bear Springs ¨C Elizabeth Dreyfus and Riley (leprechaun) ¨C near Barcaldine, Queensland, Australia.

    The Apprentice ranked dungeon was: Alligator Haven (dual) ¨C Roy Santos and Swampy (wisp) ¨C New York, New York, USA.

    The unranked category held all the proto-dungeons like himself. After a bit of thought he sent a brief message to Roy Santos introducing himself and asking about the (dual) tag in his entry.

    * * *

    ¡°Hey dreamer, wake up and stop gazing into space, we¡¯ve got decisions to make, that clusterfuck tonight has Meadows, lt. Partlow and me seeing blue screens and if we involve Art chances are he¡¯ll be hit too.¡± Interrupted Joanne.

    The world snapped into focus for Tod. ¡°Right, so where are we meeting, also hadn¡¯t we already decided on what we were going to choose?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but this evening has called those decisions into question.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Saturday was another nice day. At breakfast Mary was surprised when her mother asked her if she had any preferences regarding her seventeenth birthday.

    ¡°Tell you what dear, I¡¯ll arrange for catering and we¡¯ll have a party in the back garden. All you will have to do is send out the invitations.¡±

    Mary looked dubious, then she smiled and hugged her mother in thanks.

 Chapter 77

    Tyler and his women made it to the shore, they were out of breath and panting hard. The dwarves had fallen behind but they were still coming and seemed tireless.

    Madison scrambled down the steep slope to the rocky beach where she began to strip and push everything into her necklace storage device. Ava did the same and Tyler after another look back at their pursuers did the same.

    * * *

    The dwarves grinned as they chased the three humans. The damned skinny beanpoles were faster than a sturdy well built dwarf but they lacked stamina.

    ¡°We¡¯ve got them now,¡± bellowed Bloodaxe. ¡°They¡¯ve got nowhere to run now!¡±

    ¡°Spread out lads,¡± ordered Raax Foefinder. ¡°All they can do now is try to cut past us.¡±

    The nine dwarves spread out into a ragged line as they approached the coast. Then they were lining the top of the steep little slope that bordered the narrow deserted rocky beach. They peered around in bewilderment, the only living things in sight were three seals swimming south as they hunted for their supper.

    ¡°By Cragar Cave Lord¡¯s bushy beard where are those damned humans?¡± asked Bloodaxe irritably. ¡°Riix Hawkeye can you track them?¡±

    ¡°On all those rocks? No chance cousin.¡±

    ¡°Damn sneaky bastards, probably drowned themselves so we couldn¡¯t get our due,¡± complained Foefinder.

    ¡°Yeah, bunch of thieves. Stealing our Mithril,¡± agreed Hawkeye even as the walruses disappeared round a headland to the south.

    Then they spread out and searched the beach, poking at anything that didn¡¯t look like a rock in the hopes of finding something, anything washed up by the sea that would give them a clue where their mithril was to be found.

    * * *

    Xaar pouted in displeasure. All his relatives had run off leaving him alone in the wilderness. Being an obedient young dwarf he sat on a rock and waited. And waited. And then it was night.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Roy Santos or Gator was testing his new dungeon under the streets of New York and chatting with his friend Swampy. Gator was more than pleased with life and was glad to have discarded his human body for the lovely Black Onyx that resided in the little niche at the back of his home cavern. He was still debating what to use as his boss monster but he was happy with the pair of monster alligators in the swamp room that was the only link between his throne room and the rest of his dungeon.

    ? ting ting ting ?

    ? Huh! Hey Swampy, sounds like we have a message. Figure the System¡¯s already set up the Dungeon Exchange board. Hey buddy wanna look with me? ?

    Gator felt Swampy latch on and they accessed the message they had received. Swampy just oozed curiosity so gator accessed the roll of dungeons.

    ? Hey cool Swampy, we¡¯re not ranked novice. Gotta send a thank you note to the girl, got her to thank for being able to shed my former body. Ok, ok Swampy, hold yer horses. Ah, here we are, Tod yeah right. He¡¯s not a dungeon yet. System calls him a proto-dungeon. Zacharias Harmond, a sea human whatever that is and he is currently in Hawaii. And he¡¯s tagged. We¡¯ll keep that to ourselves as all the other dungeons are more powerful than us. ?

    ? Right boss. ?

    ¡® Hey Tod, or d¡¯you prefer Top? You in the army buddy? Cool. Nice ta hear from ya. Hadn¡¯t noticed the Exchange was up and running. As fer dual, simple man, means I¡¯m in touch with my other self on Parthia. Cool right? Two brains just gotta be better than one. See ya, Gator & Swampy.¡¯Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    Gator looked over his message and went back to it to add a few more spelling mistakes and another cool and a like. Satisfied, he dispatched it.

    ¡®Hi Mary, congrats on being the first among equals here on Earth. Thank you for freeing my other me on Parthia and allowing me to shed my aching diseased body here on Earth. Figure you saved my life so thank you again. Do you want to set up one of your Mock Turtle dungeons here in New York? I¡¯d be happy to help. Any chance you could make me an Alligator beastman. I could really use Gatormen. Regards Gator & Swampy.¡¯

    Once again Gator carefully perused his message before sending it.

    ? Hey Swampy, wanna play with ol¡¯ Vinny. He¡¯s back. ?

    Gator and Swampy focused on the edge of their domain, Vinny was moving slowly along one of the stretches of the sewers the pair had claimed. Giggling Swampy urged one of their modified alligators while Gator watched. The pair just loved scaring the sewer workers by showing them some of their smaller alligators.

    ? Hey boss, now all we need is a pink elephant. ?

    ? Oh yeah! That would be fun, a dancing, flying miniature pink elephant. ?

    Swampy just rolled around the ceiling laughing.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary smiled nastily, Mycroft had come through with the goods. Gallows was just a small minded prejudiced little creep, a willing catspaw. One of the ¡®Just following orders¡¯ brigade. So that gained him a little more time while Mycroft and Moriarty followed the threads.

    Wouldn¡¯t be difficult to sow a little uncertainty. It wouldn¡¯t surprise her in the slightest if one Gallows¡¯ controllers lost patience with him ¨C with just a little help from Mycroft and Moriarty ¨C and caused him a little accident.

    Mary leaned back in the driver¡¯s seat of her jeep and grinned a little wider. ¡®I wonder what the Marines will think when we prove that that fine honourable marine Captain Gallows was killed by some feds. Should prove amusing and those same feds will be linked to Harris who shot and nearly crippled another marine officer. And I¡¯m sure Moriarty could link them to that chopper crash. Hmm, that affair just doesn¡¯t add up. I¡¯ll get Moriarty to check it out.¡¯

    Mary watched as Joanne hurried down the path of ¡®her¡¯ house. Mary narrowed her eyes, Jo looked ¨C younger. Art was climbing into his truck, he also looked younger and she bet that that blue hair was not the result of dye.

    ¡®Poor things, sea humans are very much mine especially now with the new link, must make sure not to abuse the situation ¡®cause this lot seem to mean well. Now the poor things are gonna feel so conflicted if they¡¯re asked to do me dirt.¡¯

    Mary grinned widely, ¡°Hiya Jo, see you¡¯ve been integrated by Bluey. No problems I hope?¡±

    Joanne scrambled aboard and gave Mary a sour look, ¡°No, no problems. It¡¯s just that I¡¯d forgotten why I was so eager to grow up! Damn hormones.¡±

    ? Beep Bluey, why can she swear and I¡¯m still goin¡¯ beep! ?

    ? But you¡¯re less than a year old as a dungeon Mother of Monsters, and Joanne is over fourteen years old. ?

    Mary sighed and headed for school.

    * * *

    Mary was bored when the message from Alligator Haven arrived. She opened it and her eyebrows shot up. She remembered Santos, she had not been as repulsed as when she had read Linny but she had not expected much from him. PTS, drugs and alcohol coupled with homeless in New York had not exactly endeared the Vietnam Vet to her.

    ? Wow Bluey, you¡¯ve been busy. You¡¯ve got the Exchange up and running already. ?

    ? Your fault Blackbeard¡¯s Bane. ?

    ? No need to be snippy ¡®bout it Bluey. Trust a Tod like incident is not goin¡¯ to happen again? ?

    ? Snippy? Dungeon yes, proto-dungeon no. ?

    Mary returned her attention briefly to the classroom, Ms Carrella was still droning on about Romeo and Juliet. So she returned her attention to her message.

    ? Jerica, what do you think ¡®bout this. Can we afford somethin¡¯ like other me¡¯s Mock Turtle dungeon? ?

    ? I don¡¯t know Mary, I think we should pass on it for now. ?

    ? Yeah, the agency drones would freak out if their GPS told them they were bouncin¡¯ ¡®bout the planet instantaneously. They¡¯re kind of stuck on the speed of light thing. Could get us into lots more trouble. ?

    Mary glanced out of the window, Ms Carrella was still droning apparently unaware that most of her pupils were paying her no attention, many were busy texting their friends.

    ? I Wonder... ?

    ? What are you thinking Mary? ?

    ? Just... I wonder if we could set up a portal on the Moon? Maybe next time I have to visit my dad, we could visit Cape Canaveral and NASA. A moonbase would be cool! ¡®K now I have to figure how to harden humans for radiation. That¡¯s gonna be difficult... Maybe... Um... ?

    ? Mary! Wake up! Leave it for later, you¡¯re in school now. Don¡¯t scare the nice teacher or the other kids. ?

    ? Wha... Oh thanks Jerica. So let¡¯s see... ?

    ¡®Hi Gator, glad to hear you¡¯re feeling better. Be safe and prosper ¡®k. Get me a breeding pair of unmodified Alligators and I can provide you with the template for Gator ¡®folk. I already have the crocodile variant so it won¡¯t be too hard. You¡¯ll have to pledge to help me set up a terminus of the Earth variant of the Mock Turtle dungeon in New York at some time in the future. The System insists on a fair exchange. It seems to have a downer on gifts.¡¯

    Mary heard the bell and she sent the message and disengaged from the System and joined everyone else in gathering their things and leaving the room.

 Chapter 78

    Mary watched with interest as her other self created a headless sea human body to experiment on, tweaking, chopping, growing testing and discarding what failed to meet her aims. Soon they merged and became lost in the all too familiar throes of creation.

    Trisha and Jerica united to attempt to drag their partners back into their worlds. The two companions shared their frustration. Neither of them understood why their partners kept poisoning their creation with the poisons emanating from those insanely hard to create metals.

    It took them a day before they were satisfied.

    ? That was interesting me. The moon? ?

    ? Yes other me, also this should allow me to cure those suffering from exposure. And it¡¯s another thing to offer the navy¡¯s nuke boys or whatever they¡¯re called. ?

    ? Hey me, what about...? ?

    ? Might work... But how do I? ?

    ? How about...? ?

    ? Mary! ? Exclaimed Trisha and Jerica in unison.

    ? Sorry, ? apologised Mary and Mary.

    = = O = =

    Xaar was getting nervous, his father hadn¡¯t returned yet. He had been gone for ages and he still hadn¡¯t returned with his promised dagger. He was getting hungry and thirsty. He nervously looked round blessing his nightsight.

    Some time after nightfall he spotted some shapes moving around in the dark and he strained his eyes trying to identify them. Unfortunately they seemed aware if the limitations of a dwarf¡¯s nightsight seeming almost to be actively teasing their victim.

    A low pitched hissing voice seemed to float out of the darkness. ¡°Sooo, a nice tasty little rock grub.¡±

    ¡°Yesss,¡± hissed another. ¡°A niiice tender little rock grub.¡±

    ¡°And all on his own in the daaark,¡± added yet a third voice.

    Xaar bolted in panic hearing low laughter coming from the dark.

    ¡°Huuunt, let¡¯s hunt brothers.¡±

    Xaar shied violently when a dark figure rose up in front of him and casually raised a gleaming crossbow. Sobbing with terror Xaar took off at an angle.

    * * *

    The Drow took over an hour to catch their prey and only ceased their play when their victim collapsed sobbing and wouldn¡¯t or couldn¡¯t do anything other than lie there and sob.

    Suddenly all business they stripped and searched him before tying him up, then with kicks and prods from their weapons they forced Xaar to his feet and two of their novice warriors led him away.

    ¡°Now we hunt the hunters and their prey.¡±

    The hunting party¡¯s scout emerged from the dark. ¡°Yes chief, by the tracks I figure nine rock-beetles were hunting three humans who had been escorting the rock grub back to their town. They headed for the coast.¡±

    ¡°Lead the way Nightshade. We have to be careful, we spent too long on the rock grub.¡±

    ¡°True chief, but it was so much fun!¡±

    Nightshade grumbled to himself while Darkfire chucked. ¡°Yes it was irresistible, but we took too long and now we need to be careful. The rock-beetles are grasping impetuous fools but they can be dangerous.¡±

    The Drow edged their way to the top of the steep slope lining the rocky beach and Nightshade eased his way down onto the beach after making sure it was deserted. He carefully examined the beach and then to the surprise of the watching band went right down to the sea and spent some time examining the gravel beach.

    After Darkfire signalled the all clear, the other drow bar two who remained at the to of the slope joined him.

    ¡°Well chief, if I read this right the humans aren¡¯t. The rock-beetles split up, some went north and the rest south. Too rocky to say how many went each way.¡±

    Darkfire looked at his scout in irritation. ¡°What do you mean the humans aren¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t human. They¡¯re some kind of seal, big seals that can take on the form of humans. By the drag marks they are huge.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s new.¡± Darkfire shrugged, ¡°well we won¡¯t be catching them this time. Any idea which direction the smaller party of rock-beetles went?¡±

    ¡°No, there is less disturbed rock to the south but that could mean that the rock-beetles that went south knew more about sneaking.¡±

    After a moments thought Darkfire decided. ¡°We go south, but lets get off this beach.¡±

    * * *

    Bloodaxe rubbed his hands together briskly while Juut the carpenter fed the fire with a few scraps of driftwood. The flames sputtered and spat oddly coloured sparks as the flames consumed the salt encrusted wood. Bloodaxe held his hands out to the totally inadequate flames in a futile attempt to get warm.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    ¡®Damn thieving humans, it¡¯s their fault I freezing my nose off. I was only going to kill them but now it¡¯s personal and I¡¯ll make sure they die slow,¡¯ thought Bloodaxe with a sour smile.

    ¡°Oooo, two nasty tough rock-beetles.¡± Hissed a voice from the darkness.

    ¡°Yeees, not like the nice juicy... tender... little rock grub they abandoned,¡± hissed another.

    ¡°Rock grub taaasty, rock-beetle not.¡±

    Bloodaxe jumped to his feet, grabbed his battleaxe and turned to face the direction the voices seemed to be coming from. Juut drew his warhammer and started to circle the fire to stand beside his friend. Both the dwarves were squinting trying to see with fire blinded eyes.

    Before Juut reached Bloodaxe a barbed bullwhip wrapped itself around his neck and he was hauled off his feet. Juut grasped for the whip but he was rapidly weakening from a severed artery.

    ¡°Stupid rock-beetle spoiling my fun. Why are you not wearing your armour?¡± there was a short pause. ¡°Chief, this rock-beetle dead. I¡¯ll go relieve Nightshade so he can have some fun too.¡±

    Nightshade grinned, ¡°thanks Laasa Whipmistress,¡± he murmured as he went to join the rest of the hunting party in harassing Bloodaxe.

    The Drow showed themselves and skipped out of the way of Bloodaxe¡¯s furious charges while their fellows flitted in behind the berserk dwarf and delivering small cuts to his back and legs.

    ¡°Another rock-beetle is approaching from the south,¡± stated Laasa as she prepared her crossbow.

    ¡°It¡¯s getting late. Kill it, this one is nearly done and we have to go home,¡± ordered Darkfire.

    ¡°No armour again, what is it with these rock-beetles?¡± Laasa waited patiently until she couldn¡¯t miss, then she fired her crossbow and the dwarf stumbled to a halt clutching at the bolt sticking out of his right eye.

    Laasa giggled, ¡°rock-beetles and their rock heads.¡± Then she shook out her whip and flowed silently towards the wounded dwarf.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Donnie Rivers woke feeling disoriented. Somehow something just didn¡¯t look right. He fumbled at his bedside table and knocked his alarm clock to the floor before managing to grab his glasses. Then his alarm went off.

    Donnie rolled out of bed and after a couple of tries he found his clock and silenced it before replacing it on his bedside table before stumbling into his bathroom. Splashing water on his face finally woke him and on looking in his shaving mirror he finally realized that there was a blue screen hovering in front of his nose.

    ¡°YES!¡±

    A short time later he had called in sick and was sipping his coffee. Impatiently he pushed aside his breakfast things and booted his laptop. He opened the pages he had bookmarked and started reading them again.

    Barely glancing at the blue screens hovering in front of his nose he faithfully followed the instructions he found on www.weres.r.us.com. He only slowed only when it came to choosing a species.

    ¡®Bunch of bloodthirsty fools. I can¡¯t believe there are no vegetarian options. Let me see, yes there are instructions on how to add other species.¡¯

    Donnie carefully followed these new instructions and grinned. ¡°Yes, yes and yes.¡±

    ? Done. Integration complete. ?

    After checking that the camping area he had previously selected was open he quickly packed a bag and headed for the lift. Then he was heading out of Charleston radio blaring as he hummed along.

    Donnie barely noticed the scenery as he headed into the mountains. When he arrived at his destination he parked his dusty car and meandered over to the lake. He eyed the other holiday makers with distaste examined the lake and returned to his car. He drove off and stopped briefly for gas before finding a suitably isolated road heading towards the lake. He ignored the sign stating that it was a private road and drove between two bushes and parked within sight of the lake.

    He examined his scratched paintwork and grumbled about the property owner not keeping his land neat. Then after looking round he stripped and shifted.

    Donnie took some minutes to learn how to access his new instincts and learn to walk on four legs. He wandered down to the lake and admired himself. He dipped his head and had a refreshing drink before moving towards a patch of lush looking grass. He slowly sank into a haze and started to crop the grass.

    When his new instincts urged him to move into the woods and hide in the bushes Donnie resisted. The grass was so lush and tasty.

    Then ¨C agony ¨C something drove through his chest and burst his heart. Donnie fell to the ground and shifted back to human. His nature having taken over and forced the only route that would allow it to repair his perforated heart. Donnie curled into a foetal position and fainted.

    * * *

    Will McCoy cursed and dragged out his satellite phone and called for the emergency services. ¡°Is he dead Sonny?¡±

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t be. These shifter folk are hard to kill. They are very vulnerable to silver but I hit him with a lead ball. Also I didn¡¯t hit him in the brain nor did I sever his neck.¡± Randy McCoy used his ramrod to reload his Springfield rifle. ¡°How stupid do you have to be to prance round as a stag in the wood in deer hunting season?¡±

    * * *

    Donnie woke slowly. His chest hurt but he seemed to be secured on a stretcher. Two hillbillies were talking to a scruffy stout looking sheriff. A paramedic was poking at him. ¡°Why did those idiots shoot me? You should arrest them.¡±

    ¡°Why? They shot a stag and they have a licence for two deer. Furthermore this is their uncle¡¯s land and it¡¯s deer hunting season.¡± Asked a young man in a deputies uniform.

    ¡°But I¡¯m a man.¡±

    ¡°Not ¡®cording to the System. Weredeer it says with anyone with the skill to check you out.¡±

    ¡°I am, I¡¯m a man and nobody should eat meat. It¡¯s wrong, hunting¡¯s wrong.¡±

    ¡°You looked like a stag. Randy was trying out his birthday present so his pa was filming it. And then you¡¯re trespassing.¡±

    The paramedic snorted, ¡°We¡¯re designed to eat meat. He¡¯s good to go. Let¡¯s get him on the ambulance.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Tod contemplated Gator¡¯s reply. It didn¡¯t exactly fill him with confidence and it raised yet more questions.

    ¡®I¡¯m Tod now. What¡¯s Parthia and what do you mean by your other self? Yours in friendship Tod.¡¯

    The answer arrived sometime later.

    ¡®Hey Tod, Cool, Parthia is da ozzer world where like, this female god with these huuuge boobs took part of our souls, like, an set us up as dungeons. Now me an and tha other dungeon me have kinda got together an know all he and I know. Cool no? See ya, Gator & Swampy.¡¯

    So Mary was not alone, not really. He felt a chill run up his back.

    * * *

    Mary smiled at Jerica and hugged her tight.

    ¡°Hey Mycroft got any idea who we could offer a little fix that would allow people to be far more resistant to radiation? An¡¯ another that would allow them to correct a certain degree of existin¡¯ damage.¡±

    ¡°What about Gallows? He¡¯ll think we should have gone to him with it?¡±

    ¡°Not happenin¡¯. C¡¯mon Mycroft are you even sure the man is workin¡¯ for the States?¡±

    ¡°I think he is. But no I¡¯m not sure.¡±

    ¡°¡¯Course you¡¯re all invited to my birthday party. An¡¯ also see if you can pass an invite along to our Hawaiian friends. You know the ones who gave us the fish tanks.¡±

 Chapter 79

    Mary spared a thought for her envoys and briefly joined Tyler, Ava and Madison in their dreams.

    Things were going well, though Tyler was going to be impossible when he realised that Ava... Mary chuckled to herself and spread her awareness over her domain. Huh, that group of veteran adventurers was trying again. Well they were getting stronger.

    ¡®Mmm, they deserve somethin¡¯ special for their persistence. Heh, I know, I¡¯m sure I can do it but I¡¯ll need to know them better. Lessee, yeah they¡¯ve all bled a lot and... yeah, it¡¯ll be fun and underscore my new status.¡¯

    ¡®Then I have those beep dwarves, not nice folk, gotta do somethin¡¯ to underscore my displeasure. Can¡¯t have my folk wronged for doin¡¯ a good deed. Lessee if I can use that method to see what¡¯s happenin¡¯ elsewhere that Ocidon been tryin¡¯ to teach me.¡¯

    Mary concentrated and slowly a scene came into focus.

    ¡®Brrr! Beep! But that looks freezin¡¯. ¡¯K, so we have dark elves, drow. Interestin¡¯ but that still leaves the main culprit untouched an¡¯ spreadin¡¯ lies. My folk will get the best Mithril items now. Gotta rub their noses in it.¡¯ Mary chuckled. ¡®Maybe I can use the drow to screw him up more. Might have to rescue the brat so I can use him.¡¯

    Mary sent her awareness into the gods plane and started searching for the scent of the drow. She tracked the scent and she could see where the threads had been relocated. Concentrating hard she found a ghost of a trail and followed it to a gigantic decrepit web. The cocoon in the centre of the web pulsed slowly with life.

    ¡® Time to live up to my new title of Blackbeard¡¯s Bane. Now if I can grab the threads... lessee, my threads to my Octopii, the deep sea squid folk an¡¯ my sea humans. Mmmm, gotta do somthin¡¯ to hide an¡¯ strengthen those ties. Hmm? Tyler, Victoria an¡¯ Tomcat an¡¯ their folk too? Well my blessin¡¯ to you all. Huh, gotta be careful with that in future. Was expensive but rewardin¡¯.¡¯

    Mary moved carefully and examined the ties linking the drow to Vortexius Blackbeard, then cautiouslu she followed them until she could feel the weakened god. She exhaled softly through her blowhole and contacted her folk and collected their threads in her head.

    ? Watch! As We ¨C I Strike at Blackbeard. ?

    And then Mary launched a powerful bolt of something at Vortexius Blackbeard that seemed to stagger him. The she grabbed the loose threads and yanked them out of the distracted god¡¯s grasp. Mary fled to the web and thrust them into the cocoon.

    She turned and called her domain, and swam slowly in the gods ocean to face a furious Blackbeard. The godsrealm frothed and boiled as differing paradigms fought for dominance. Slowly the waters retreated. But then a hissing cold voice came from behind Mary, ¡°Why how nice! The thief is all alone before me and it seems I have an ally. Only a demi-goddess but that still leaves you vulnerable thief!¡±

    Blackbeard blanched and started to withdraw but he was too late as a huge woman headed spider trailing silver bubbles pounced on him and the fight was on.

    Mary grinned, then shot forward and rammed Blackbeard, even as the ocean aspect of the godsrealm regained ascendancy.

    * * *

    Two wounded and tired female divine beings floated in the a wide ocean of the godsrealm as they slowly absorbed the blood that had spilled and gathered and filtered the scraps Vortexius Blackbeard had abandoned when he fled.

    ? So tell me little one, why is a fish challenging the new gods and why are you helping me? ?

    ? Not a fish, dolphin are not fish, we¡¯re mammals. Ocidon an¡¯ me we¡¯re gonna screw the new gods over. Wanna join? An¡¯ why is one of those threads I yanked from Blackbeard attached to me? ?

    ? Little fish you are amusing. The drow are my children but they need a link to another to truly prosper. And that is you for now little fish. And now I ask again. Why did you decide to help me and mine? ?

    ? Some of my folk had a run in with some dwarves that tried to beep them over. ? Mary radiated amusement. ? Then some drow showed up and more than evened the score. I want to rub the dwarves noses in it, so I went lookin¡¯ for the drow¡¯s divine protector an¡¯ found Blackbeard had stolen them an¡¯ wasn¡¯t treatin¡¯ ¡®em right. An¡¯ as Blackbeard¡¯s Bane I couldn¡¯t resist intervenin¡¯. ?

    ? Why so you are ¨C and how do plan to rub the dwarves noses in it? ?

    ? Figure to give that band a few presents, got a few mithril weapons including a nice mithril barbed and reinforced whip. ?

    = = O = =

    Tyler rubbed himself against Ava and glowed with contentment as he sensed his child life force curled peacefully as it grew in his love¡¯s womb. Madison lay relaxed on the small iceberg close to her friends. Her eyes were closed as she relived that terrifying fight in the godsrealm against Vortexius Blackbeard. She stroked the small seed, the manna seed that was her reward for throwing all she was into helping Mother. She could see the same seed in Tyler and Ava. Tyler was going to be a pain ¨C more of a pain ¨C now he knew he was going to be a daddy.

    Tyler grumbled to himself and eyed Madison. What magnificent tusks she had and such delicate whiskers. His Ava was more delicate and she was his. But he wanted Madison too.

    ¡®That fight was spectacular and terrifying. Why was Mother so reckless?¡¯ Tyler snorted with reluctant humour. ¡®Mother seems to value recklessness and risk taking. Why else are we on our way to find out the weaknesses of another god before the first enemy has been eliminated. I wonder how long it will take for the world to learn that Mother is linked to the drow? Their reputation is not good.¡¯This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Early in the evening Darkfire led his band and their offering into the temple. As always the temple seemed cold and uninviting. The priest, a human, and his two drow acolytes were already present in front of the altar. Vulcar-tor the chief priest smiled at the sight of the rock grub.

    ¡°Well done¡ª¡±

    ¡°Darkfire,¡± hissed one of the acolytes.

    ¡°¡ªDarkfire, the young dwarf will make an excellent slave.¡±

    There was a sharp crack, and the torches burning in front of the altar were abruptly extinguished casting the temple into gloom. Darkfire blinked as the feeling of indifference that had infused the temple for as long as he could remember vanished.

    ¡°Look, the statue!¡± exclaimed Nightshade.

    Nightwind watched as the statue of Vortexius Blackbeard rocked and cracked, chips flying from it to lie scattered on the floor of the temple. The priest and his acolytes turned and cried in dismay. Then the statue and altar shattered forming a ¨C window ¨C that showed Vortexius Blackbeard fighting against the Spider Queen and one of those air breathing fish.

    The fight was vicious and all participants were wounded but Vortexius Blackbeard was the one who fled.

    Then a new Altar formed itself as did a vast black basalt web with a statue of the Spider Queen at it¡¯s heart. Slightly to one side and behind the statue of Spider queen one of a leaping dolphin appeared.

    ? I am back my children. Kill the followers of the thief. ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Dr Michaela DeBlasio contemplated the occurrences of the past few days and came to a decision. She rubbed her chin, her bristly chin and sighed in frustration before heading for her bathroom room to shave yet again. She had been so impressed when the blue screens had started appearing at the con, they had just seemed like some really spectacular special effects. She would never have chosen to be a dwarf if she had realised the consequences. Even so she was much better of than that bloke that had chosen to become a dryad.

    The last two days had been hectic with those three stupid teenagers being admitted suffering from acute anaemia and sunburn. Honestly opting to become a close approximation of vampires early on of a sunny day whilst still at school. Then the school vice principal had dragged the other two in, the tiger boy and the sea human.

    She shook her head ruefully, the tiger boy had been contrite, even if according to him he had been threatened to find out how to create a viable vampire for the others. The solution using a series of vampire romances featuring nanite affected humans was ingenious but... And then there was the girl, someone who had studied and was studying the System. The closest thing to an expert she had come across yet.

    Michaela shuddered. The girl¡¯s total lack of empathy for the sufferers was chilling. And then there was that throwaway remark about her beard.

    Then there has been the other two girls, the elder the third girl in the vampire cabal who had opted for elf and her sister who Lani had used to test her changes and had ended up in the body of a six year old sea elf. At least having enquired into sea humans she had been able to caution the family about the potentially lethal dangers posed by chlorinated swimming pools.

    She had researched the girl Mary Silvestre, both through official channels and through the old gamer and the new System related blogs. Every mention of her on those blogs was second or third hand where someone was citing her as a source.

    She checked her chin and returned to her living room. Then after checking the time she dug out her phone.

    * * *

    Michaela didn¡¯t know whether to be horrified or hopeful. Her friend Cas had hinted that the girl might ¨C just might ¨C be able to do what she promised. Mind you Cas has invited herself along which saved her from issuing the invite.

    So now here they were in this quiet residential street in front of a house with a vintage jeep on the driveway complete with a curled up ginger cat napping on its hood.

    ¡°Come on Cas, she said she¡¯d be in the back garden.¡±

    They discovered Mary sitting cross legged beside a mid sized pond in the corner of the garden. It was surrounded on three sides by thick flower covered bushes. She seemed to be talking to a tiny girl in the pond. Mary looked up and waved them over.

    ¡°Afternoon Cas, Michaela. Allow me to introduce my best friend Jerica. She¡¯s a Sea Sprite.¡±

    Jerica smiled and waved. ¡°Hi.¡±

    Michaela gasped, ¡°Someone chose to become a Sea Sprite?¡±

    Jerica shook her head, ¡°I¡¯ve always been a Sea Sprite, just like my mother and father.¡±

    ¡°But... I thought that magic only recently... So how?¡± asked Cas.

    A small pixie poked her head out from behind the bush where she had been hiding. ¡°You big folk have only recently been awakened but lots of us have been hiding in odd corners. It¡¯s better now.¡±

    Mary grinned at the looks of astonishment on her visitor¡¯s faces. ¡°And this is Silversword, she¡¯s a pixie, and yes she¡¯s a friend too.¡±

    Silversword smiled and seemed to relax.

    Michaela dropped to the ground and sat on the grass as she looked back and forth between the two small beings. Cas¡¯ attention meanwhile was captured by a fish swimming in the pond.

    ¡°That¡¯s a saltwater fish!¡±

    ¡°Well naturally, what did you expect? How could Terry visit me if it was fresh?¡±

    ¡°Terry?¡± queried Cas.

    ¡°Herro Cas, Mary has mentioned you.¡±

    Cas collapsed to the ground.

    ¡°Have we broken her Mother? I meant no harm.¡± Terry said and sank back to the bottom of the pond.

    ? Doubt it Terry, and if we have then she¡¯s useless to us. Thank you for coming. ?

    ¡°Michaela have you decided? Do you want me to remove your beard?¡±

    ¡°God damn it Mary, how dared you play god and create that poor octopus. Don¡¯t you realize how lonely he¡¯s going to be?¡±

    ¡°But he¡¯s not alone. And Pete and Shirley are doting parents.¡±

    Jerica and Silversword looked at each other, Jerica muttered, ¡°play god!¡± and then they broke out in mutual laughter.

    Michaela just stared at Cas. ¡°Um, Cas what¡¯s gotten into you?¡±

    Cas glared, ¡°That ¨C That¡ª¡± then she seemed to slump, ¡°Mary has some dangerous theories about DNA and how to manipulate it. She used octopi in her paper ¨C but ¨C but it was ¨C it seemed impossible. But we met Terry! We met Terry.¡±

    ¡°You mean Terry isn¡¯t something the System created.¡± Michaela asked.

    Cas glanced hopefully at Mary. But she only smiled and shook her head. ¡°Terry and his people are mine. And they¡¯re not alone.¡±

    * * *

    Cas was feeling scared. She had met an intelligent articulate octopus. She had talked with Terry while Mary had been working on Michaela. Admittedly Terry couldn¡¯t handle the letter L, but that was minor. Mary had actually created a new race. And according to Terry, Pete and Shirley had had children ¨C and they had survived! They had bred true.

    That sideways knowing ¨C mocking ¨C look that Mary liked to use was infuriating. Cas wasn¡¯t sure if she was glad or furious that Mary had no intention of making her octopi public. But the enchanted items she used to view manipulate and change the DNA of a living being, and the one she had used to diffuse the changes through the body. That she was willing to sell those items was terrifying. And what was truly frightening is that she ¨C Cas ¨C wanted them too.

 Chapter 80

    Three walruses forged ever southward through the icy seas until they reached their destination. They hauled themselves onto another small iceberg and watched the peculiar black and white birds seem to fly through the sea.

    ¡°Not much of a challenge here Tyler, the challenge will be not scaring the poor thing,¡± observed Madison.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know what she has in there,¡± replied Tyler.

    ¡°It¡¯s a very new and inexperienced dungeon,¡± suggested Ava. ¡°I think Madison¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°Yeah well, so do I,¡± agreed Tyler. ¡°But we have to remain cautious, she came from Earth just like Mother.¡±

    They waited slipped off their iceberg and moved towards the entrance of the dungeon. They dove and swam through the dungeon¡¯s entrance tunnel in single file. The tunnel was barely big enough to allow them through, Tyler brushed the sides on several occasions. Then they entered a large sunken cavern, they were attacked by the cave¡¯s inhabitants. The fight was short and the three crossed into the dungeon¡¯s second cavern. The walruses made short work of the penguins that inhabited the large pool that filled almost the entirety of the cave before climbing out of the pool. Tyler, Ava and Madison fed well.

    * * *

    Rachel Daniels was horrified at the ease with which the three huge walruses had carved their way through her penguins. She had never realised how big walruses were, the big one had to weigh well over a ton and the females weren¡¯t much smaller. And the damn things were feasting on her guards.

    Duskbright was scared, they had nothing that could take on these monsters. Walruses ¨C walruses, what were walruses. Right they were something that existed on Rachel¡¯s world and presumably in the north polar seas.

    ? Can, can we absorb these walruses. They¡¯d make good guards, right? ?

    ¡°We¡¯d have to kill one to absorb it Rachel. I don¡¯t think we have any chance of doing that.¡±

    ? They¡¯re just animals ¨C right? ?

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure, our dungeon is reacting like uncle Trapper¡¯s dungeon did when an powerful adventurer party entered.¡±

    ? But they¡¯re just.... ? Rachel¡¯s voice trailed off as the big walrus started to shrink and change shape becoming a hunky well built naked man who was pulling clothes and armour out of thin air. Rachel missed her body but she filed the sight in her memory. She almost missed the two other walruses shrink and change into muscular looking women.

    ¡°Were walruses. And their armour and weapons are made of mithril. We might be in trouble Rachel. I hope they¡¯re the Adventurer¡¯s Guild evaluation team.¡±

    * * *

    Tyler looked round the cavern and waited until his women finished changing and equipping themselves. Then he looked up and gave his prepared speech feeling more than a little silly.

    ¡°We wish you no harm. My lady wishes information she believes you possess and in return is willing to offer you help, friendship or an alliance. Your choice.¡± Then he added the memorised phrase in English, ¡°Please believe me as one former exile to another.¡±

    * * *

    Duskbright and Rachel shared a thought.

    ? We can¡¯t stop them can we? Will you go and talk to them. I really don¡¯t want them in my chamber. ?

    ¡°But, you can speak with them Rachel. They¡¯re in your domain. But if you want, then yes I¡¯ll go and speak with them.¡±

    ? Oh! Oh I see, right I¡¯ll try that rather than have you run any risks. ?

    ? Um, who is your lady and what information can I possibly have that anyone on this world could need? ?

    = = O = =

    Tomcat started barking out orders, the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory turned into the wind and the crew threw out the sea anchor. Clarrina watched bemused as the crew joined Tomcat in dropping to sit on the deck and staring into nothing.

    ¡°No point trying to wake them, their god has called them,¡± offered an elderly passenger. ¡°This is unusual, I hope they will explain what is happening.¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Clarrina placed a hand over her belly, ¡°I wonder if it¡¯s something to do with the prophecy?¡±

    ¡°Which prophecy? There are several. Do you know what god they follow?¡±

    ¡°Tomcat is a priest of the consort. Ocidon¡¯s consort, we were married by her high priestess in his temple.¡±

    The old man clutched the ships rail, ¡°Ocidon has taken a consort? And they are hers. Then it could be one of two prophecies.¡±

    At that point Tomcat leapt to his feet followed by his crew and they burst out cheering.

    ¡°Run Blackbeard! Run! Three cheers for Mother! Hip Hip¡ª¡± ¡°Hurrah!¡±

    ¡°Hip Hip¡ª¡± ¡°Hurrah!¡±

    ¡°Hip Hip¡ª¡± ¡°Hurrah!¡±

    The elderly man blanched, ¡°the Gods War prophecy, oh gods protect me.¡±

    Clarrina rubbed her belly absently and tilted her head to one side. ¡°Are you all right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes. But I¡¯m afraid. The Gods War prophecy is...¡± he waved his hands vaguely. ¡°Frightening! Gods are going to die and new gods will take their place. And... Oh gods!¡±

    Tomcat issued orders, the sea anchor was retrieved and the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory got underway once more. Smiling he strode up to Clarrina and placed an arm around her shoulder. ¡°Mother has won another battle against Vortexius Blackbeard. The Drow are no longer his. The Spider Queen is awake and has reclaimed her children. She has allied with Ocidon and Mother.¡±

    The elderly gentleman leant against the ship¡¯s rail. ¡°The gods war,¡± he whispered to himself. ¡°When will we reach Garonmouth captain?¡±

    Tomcat looked round and inspected the sails. ¡°Late tomorrow or early on the next day.¡±

    ¡°Thank you captain, we¡¯ve made remarkably good time.¡±

    Tomcat grinned and kissed his latest wife.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Laasa Whipmistress, the words ¡®Kill the followers of the thief¡¯ filling her mind, shook out her whip and with a feral smile she stepped forward and let fly. Nightshade for his part drew one of his daggers and moved to prevent the escape of the youngest acolyte. Nightwind couldn¡¯t help ginning as Vulcar-tor tried to prevent the contents of his belly from spilling to the ground.

    Nightson stepped up behind Laasa drawing his sword. Nightwind drew his sword and took his cousin¡¯s head off his shoulders. ¡°Stupid idiot,¡± he muttered softly, while blinking in confusion at the long straight smoky grey rapier that had replaced his sabre.

    ¡°Mithril!¡± exclaimed a voice that was almost drowned out by the screams of the second acolyte who was being cut to ribbons by the whip of the whipmistress.

    Nightshade was standing over the body of the acolyte who had tried to flee examining his knife. Nightwind noted absently that Nightshade¡¯s knife had a smoky grey blade.

    The drow present in the temple stiffened as they heard the laughter of two beings in their heads.

    ? Dump the carrion in the pit. Keep the priest for Sablemane Iceheart your new queen to dispatch. ?

    Nightwind met the eyes of his band and noted Laasa was examining her barbed bullwhip. He noted in passing that it had shed any gore it might have picked up recently. He nodded once then barked out his orders.

    When Sablemane Iceheart swept into the temple surrounded by her guard and followed by her court, the carrion had been disposed of and Nightwind¡¯s band were standing guard to either side of the altar.

    The Queen¡¯s guard stiffened at the sight of armed drow but all stilled as the voice of the Spider Queen echoed in their heads.

    ? The sacrifice awaits lady Iceheart. ?

    Sablemane grinned and stepped forward and after gloating over the semi-conscious priest drew her poniard and rammed in the man¡¯s eye.

    ? Done! Welcome Queen Iceheart. ?

    A bejewelled smoky grey tiara appeared on the queen¡¯s head and Sablemane rose and gazed at the new altar.

    ¡°Mithril!¡± murmured Xaar.

    ? Someone please gag that imbecile, ? uttered another voice.

    While Nightshade gagged the young dwarf the Spider Queen proceeded to instruct her people ending with... ? Finally, I make you known to my new partner Little Fish, the Demi-Goddess Mary Jane Silvestre, Blue Lagoon, Mother of Monsters, Blackbeard¡¯s Bane, and Ocidon Earthshaker¡¯s Consort. The junior goddess of the Drow. ?

    An elderly female advanced and bowed respectfully to the altar, ¡°Welcome back my lady, but I thought the secondary god had to be a male.¡±

    ? And that worked so well didn¡¯t it? Welcome my priestess, I acknowledge you. Now Little Fish pick your priest to my children. ?

    Mary laughed out loud.

    ? Three have already served me well. So ¨C Laasa Whipmistress, I gift you with the whip you have just used, care for it well and will wake and bind itself to you. You have the honour of naming it. Will you be my Priestess. Nightwing will you be my champion, I gift you with the Spanish Rapier you blooded today. Name it and it will wake and be yours. Nightshade will you be my Spymaster? The paired daggers are yours, name them and they will be yours and wake. ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary sat back and rolled the crystalline bead in her hand. She examined it with all her senses and checked her other memories.

    ¡°So Mary is it done? Will it work?¡± enquired Jerica.

    ¡°Think so. It¡¯s identical to the one Robin Goodfellow is carrying around. It includes the evolutions that enable me to use it to transfer domain for portals.¡±

    ¡°Why do we need this? It seems to soon somehow. We¡¯re nowhere near as strong as you are on Parthia.¡±

    ¡°Legal reasons, gotta visit dad soon. Mandatory visitation an¡¯ all that. Don¡¯t think I can send me that far from my domain. Wouldn¡¯t want to be that far from ¨C from me. Also planes are cramped, lack room.¡±

    ¡°So we make a gate somewhere in ¨C Florida right, just a gate or do we go the Mock Turtle route?¡±

    Mary contemplated her bead, ¡°Yanno Jerica, I think we go the Mock Turtle route, add another layer of security. Figure we buy a small warehouse, or a plot of land, or just ¨C just appropriate a spot offshore somewhere. I don¡¯t think there are any dungeon detector rituals or spells yet.¡±

    ¡°Bluey will give us away soon, you know he will when he figures a critical mass of sophonts has been integrated. Then it¡¯ll be ¡®You have entered¡¯.¡±

    Mary sighed, ¡°Yeah, but figure we still have at least a year.¡±

    ¡°You sure Mary?¡±

    ¡°No, but there are so many humans and most disbelieve, others will resist ¡®cause of stubbornness or ¡®cause their priests will tell ¡®em to.¡±

    ¡°And how are you going to get that thing to Florida Mother?¡± asked Tessa from her corner of the room.

    ¡°Fed-Ex,¡± grinned Mary.

 Chapter 81

    Mary watched broadly similar scenes in the Drow temples around the world. Somehow it worked and she was not confused by the various viewpoints. She felt an amused approval coming from both Ocidon and the Spider Queen.

    Twenty-eight queens were confirmed and many more priests and priestesses.

    Then the Spider Queen turned her attention to Mary.

    ? Now you little fish. Hold your chosen in your mind and feel their essence. Yes like that, now use it as a lure and cast it out to find the most compatible in my halls to find your clergy and champions. ?

    Mary snorted through her blowhole and spread her ¨C web ¨C no that didn¡¯t feel quite right ¨C her net, yes that worked. Unfortunately that still left five halls without a priestess and the Spider Queen insisted. So Mary thought, she grinned and followed he link and used Victoria¡¯s delightfully devious slippery essence to create a new lure. That left only one minor hall lacking an incumbent.

    ¡®Tomcat wouldn¡¯t last long among this lot, he¡¯s too honest. That leaves Drina or Pete. Let me try mischief central first.¡¯

    Mary cast her net once more, then she giggled, this would give her several headaches but she couldn¡¯t resist so...

    * * *

    Countess Firestealer stood proudly in front of her people, she had witnessed the fall of her people when she was a girl and now in her last century or two of life she had witnessed the fall of the usurper. She smiled as she remembered her brother¡¯s death under her hand. She vowed that she would restore Chardelve Deep to its former glory even if it took another thousand years. She smiled at her great granddaughter who had taken up the ring of their goddess.

    Her eyes narrowed as she noted her grandson enter the temple in the wake of his youngest great great granddaughter. The little imp was headstrong, a disgrace, but this time she could see that she was being compelled, no, they were both being compelled.

    Blackbeard¡¯s Bane snorted and seemed to grin even more than usual.

    ? Little one, little jokester, I claim you as my priestess here in Chardelve Deep. Shadowstalker will you become one of my champions an¡¯ guide my priestess, an¡¯ guard her whip until she¡¯s old enough to claim it. ?

    Shadowstalker looked at his most mischievous descendant, a girl he had expected to loose as a consequence of one of her pranks and closed his eyes in momentary pain. He drew a deep breath but could see no way to say no. He bowed, ¡°Yes my goddess.¡±

    Shadowstalker felt a weight at his waist. His hands flew to the new weapon belt.

    ? Enjoy your new rapier, name it and it will wake an¡¯ serve you well as will the main-gauche that accompanies it. The whip is not yours, you hold in trust and my priestess has the honour of namin¡¯ it. ?

    ? conditions met ¨C you are offered the class Paladin ¨C accept yes / no ?

    Shadowstalker¡¯s eyes opened wide in shock. He stared at the statue of the ¨C dolphin? ¨C frolicking behind the Spider Queen. ¡°Y¡ªyes!¡±

    ? additional class gained: Paladin of Mary Silvestre, Mother, Little Fish, Mother of Monsters, Blackbeard¡¯s Bane: aura of protection and water breathing gained ?

    Countess Firestealer examined her grandson carefully, ¡°Paladin Shadow? How can one of us manage that?¡±

    Shadowstalker sought within himself and from the System and slowly a smile grew on his face. ¡°Mother,¡± he blinked perplexed and heard a resigned sigh in the back of his mind, ? all my people seem to call me Mother, so you might as well do so too. ?

    Shadowstalker licked his lips and continued. ¡°Mother,¡± he nodded at the statue of the happy dolphin, ¡°only requires that her Paladins protect her people, her loyal people. Much more difficult will be guiding our reckless little mischief maker.¡±

    * * *

    The Spider Queen examined their work and was satisfied.

    ? Little Fish, you are a surprisingly good fit for my children, your priestesses are an unpleasant lot, but they are all surprisingly loyal given how ruthless and lacking in empathy most of them are. ?

    ? But they know how to dissemble and pretend. And the little one is amusin¡¯. ?

    ? I will probably need to borrow the four devious ambitious ones. ?

    ? Fair enough. You are the senior goddess here. But they are mine! ?

    ? ... here ... ?

    ? Yes, here. ?

    = = O = =

    The Alessandrina¡¯s Glory edged her way into the commercial harbour at Garonmouth flying the flags of Ocidon and the Consort made her way to Ocidon¡¯s pier. Tomcat eyed two ships in the busy harbour that were attempting to copy his beauty¡¯s sail plan.

    ¡°Their hull¡¯s not right to make best use of our rig, they¡¯d do better with a mixed sail plan.¡± Tomcat stated to his first mate.

    Clarrina watched, surprised that Thomas was directing his ship to an almost empty pier in this busy port. The old gentleman who she now knew was called Fellorfox was once again standing near her. He seemed fascinated by the flags they were flying.

    ¡°What¡¯s so interesting about the flags, aren¡¯t they just the company flag and the god¡¯s banner?¡± she asked.

    ¡°The consort¡¯s flag is flying with the God¡¯s flag. Ocidon¡¯s flag isn¡¯t flying over that of his consort. And we¡¯re heading straight to Ocidon¡¯s pier.¡±

    Clarrina noted a small group of well armed guards surrounding a widely grinning little woman. As soon as they had docked and the gangplank was deployed they boarded.

    The smiling woman made her way to her Thomas. Clarrina eyed her suspiciously, then she blinked, the woman was truly tiny but... surely she didn¡¯t have... she did, she had at least four breasts. So not human. Not that meant much with Thomas of the roving eye.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°Hola Tomcat! Mother¡¯s blessings to you and your new lady. It was glorious! Blackbeard foiled and Mother has a paladin now.¡± The little lady gave a little hop of joy followed by a peal of joyous laughter.

    ¡°Hola Victoria, are you the ruler of this burg yet? And yes it was. A paladin? Really? Victoria this is my wife Clarrina. Clarrina this is Victoria one of M... the Consort¡¯s three Bishops.¡±

    ¡°Bishop? What is a bishop?¡± asked Clarrina.

    ¡°We¡¯re the second tier under High Priestess Alessandrina. Vicky represents the landfolk.¡±

    Victoria snorted with laughter. ¡°And Pete represents the seafolk while Tommy here looks after sailors and merchants. I suspect we¡¯ll have a fourth soon.¡± And she gave another little bounce of joy.

    ¡®Six, she has six breasts, what is she? Beyond being someone I don¡¯t want to make an enemy of.¡¯

    Tomcat snorted. ¡°If I restrain myself from calling you Vicky will you please not call me Tommy?¡±

    Victoria grinned wider and nodded vigorously then stuck out a hand, ¡°Now gimme, I¡¯ve got a pair of priestesses of Bordianna to show around.¡±

    Tomcat produced a small parcel and dropped it in Victoria¡¯s outstretched hand. ¡°No ring? How come?¡±

    Victoria slipped the parcel to one of her guards, ¡°You know that seed, well it allowed me to absorb the... the ability and give it to my girls too. Bye Tomcat, be sure to visit Zoreena, I hear she¡¯s not happy when she wakes...¡±

    Clarrina lips thinned slightly as she noted Thomas¡¯ tail droop slightly at Victoria¡¯s parting shot. ¡®I think I¡¯m going to have a word with my ¨C um, fellow wives, I guess. Obviously we can¡¯t let Thomas out alone in future.¡¯

    * * *

    Fellorfox hurried to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild with his hired porter following in his wake with his bags. Once he arrived he claimed one of the guest rooms the Guild kept for senior members and had his porter drop his bags in it before paying him and giving him the expected tip.

    He them dropped in on Sarannas and after the two exchanged greetings he asked if guild master Sofos Ironfist was free.

    ¡°Yes but he¡¯ll be grumpy. He likes to keep a couple of hours free for the odd job. Is it really important?¡±

    ¡°I just learned the Gods War Prophecy is underway. I just arrived on one of the Consort¡¯s ships. The crew all witnessed or maybe participated when the Consort removed the drow from Blackbeard and returned them to the Spider Queen. Then the two fought and chased Blackbeard off.¡±

    ¡°Very well, follow me please.¡± Sarannas stood and made her way down the corridor followed by Fellorfox. Beneath the floorboards a large rat grinned and followed in their wake.

    = = O = =

    Madison grinned, ¡°Mother gave us two ways to do this, answer Tyler¡¯s questions and you record a memory jewel for Mother. Then or rather before that you ask us what help you need for us to pass along to Mother.

    ¡°The second option requires trust as it¡¯s riskier for you. You would use a special enchanted crystal and talk directly mind to mind with Mother. Things would be faster that way and personally I think you would benefit more. But then I know and trust Mother and you don¡¯t.¡±

    Duskbright and Rachel merged their thoughts.

    ¡®Can we trust them ¨C we couldn¡¯t stop them if they wanted to force it ¨C so we can maybe trust them ¨C why do they think?¡¯

    ? Why are you so sure ¨C Mother, who is Mother anyway? ?

    Tyler grinned and shook his head at Madison. ¡°Mother is Blue Lagoon, Mary Silvestre.¡±

    After a quick check Duskbright and Rachel came close to panicking. ¡®Can we ¨C should we ¨C why does ¨C Trisha sea sprite ¨C who ¨C the manna stone ¨C oh, lets risk it ¨C you sure ¨C maybe, yes, yes I am ¨C if you are sure, she is far, far more powerful than us ¨C let... let''s do this.¡¯

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Taron the Ravager was leaning on the splintered remnants of his spear watching Jiira fussing over Zandrox¡¯s wounds. Fingers was carefully examining the brassbound chest that had been hidden in a small alcove behind the tapestry decorated by nightmarish looking fish.

    The nightmarish octopus headed fifth level boss of the Mock Turtle dungeon had taken all they had to give. There was no choice they would have to retreat yet again. And he knew from bitter experience that this dungeon was always learning and the specials were always changed and stronger when they respawned.

    Actually he wasn¡¯t sure they were respawned or recreated.

    ¡°It¡¯s open Taron, it contains eight small bottles. They have labels...¡± Fingers said and her voice trailed off as she checked the label.

    Taron looked up, ¡°so what does the label say Fingers?¡±

    ¡°Ten years of youth ¨C Drink me Zandrox.¡± Fingers looked quickly at the bottles, ¡°There are two here for each of us.¡±

    ¡°I think this falls to you Jiira, can you check them out?¡± asked Taron.

    ¡°Maybe, but not while we¡¯re in this hellhole.¡±

    Much later when they were relaxing in the parlour of their hired home after a visit to the truly decadent baths run by the extended Enhydralutris family.

    ¡°So what can you tell us Jiira?¡± asked Fingers examining one of the two bottles that contained her name.

    ¡°They are poison for everyone but the person named on the bottle. The liquid seems to have a very unusual enchantment but is not of itself magical.¡±

    ¡°Oh hell! The curiosity is killing me.¡± Fingers twisted off the cap and downed the liquid. ¡°Not bad tasting. Not tasty but not foul like most potions.¡±

    Jiira almost shot from her chair and in two steps was standing next to Fingers. She touched her lightly and used her diagnostic spell. ¡°Something is happening, I think it will take several hours to see the result.¡±

    Taron slumped back in his chair and signed to one of their servants for another beer. ¡°Well we¡¯ll know tomorrow.¡±

    * * *

    The following afternoon the Veterans reported to the virtually deserted local branch of the adventurer¡¯s guild and reported on their latest delve and the unique targeted reward that the dungeon gave for defeating Tentacles. They offered a visibly younger Fingers as proof.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary released her avatar and moved her attention to the deepest part of her domain, there she recreated the second level of her Mock Turtle dungeon so that she would be ready to tie it into her Florida extension. She grinned amused, but something was still lacking. A well equipped party or unit with explosives and automatic rifles would be able to clear out the wildlife. Not easily maybe but too easily for her comfort. So Mary added machinegun armed remote turrets and monofilament wire traps.

    After checking her reserves she duplicated the third level. Then she boosted the challenge in the same way she had for the previous level. Then she chuckled and added a retractable turret with a 20mm rotary cannon in the end room.

    After contemplating her concealed trump card she went back and made all the turrets retractable and capable of being concealed. She was really glad she had toured of Pearl ¨C officially and courtesy of the leopard twins.

    She frowned and merged with herself, Tentacles had gone down to the Veterans and had to be replaced. But he really wasn¡¯t properly optimised. Having to rely on dungeon manna to keep him going weakened Tentacles. Mary and Mary studied their level boss and started experimenting. There were a few inconsistencies, what if... blood and tissue bubbled and flew... then a pair of demon style wings merged with their/her project...

    Earth Mary reluctantly pried herself from the fascinating project leaving just one stream of consciousness engaged. ¡®Beep I just don¡¯t have time for this now. Those wings should help. Yeah, but later... Huh....¡¯

    She could feel a ¨C resonance. Something interesting was just out of her reach. Mary¡¯s core flickered and shone as she reached and... She felt around the resonance, it felt right but...

    ? Jerica I need help, what do you think. Can you feel the resonance? ?

    Jerica giggled. ? Oh cool Mary, the guns make it better than the version you have on Parthia. Mabe that one needs the hidden guns too. ?

    * * *

    Kent waded ashore and shook himself semi dry before a surprised audience of beachgoers.

    ¡°Hey man, what¡¯s a cat doing in the ocean,¡± asked a surprised tourist.

    Kent just looked at the irritating oaf, he saw no reason to explain anything, he was a cat after all and thus perfect. But Mother did ask him to be polite so, ¡°The water¡¯s great and we lake van cats like swimming,¡± he replied. Then Kent triggered the cleansing enchantment on his ring. He relaxed as it removed the salt that coated him. Then he strode his way up the beach. Once in the parking lot he got his clothes from his storage device and dressed.

    He jumped on a bus and settled down to read a book while he waited to get to his destination.

    Later he bought a new chevy and got a sympathetic look from the salesman when he realised that he was selling a car to a Kent Clarkson. Then Kent visited the fed-ex office to post the small package to an address in Florida.

    That evening Kent was back in the dungeon and the chevy was parked in the main cavern.

 Chapter 82

    Mary felt frustrated, she now knew everything Rachel knew about Ice Heart but it was almost nothing. There was still a chance with the other dungeon Rachel believed Ice Heart had placed on some ice covered island.

    Now how was she going... Victoria, Victoria might be able to find the spell or ritual the adventurer¡¯s guild used to locate dungeons. And maybe...

    ? Hey Trish, any idea how Marigold finds new dungeons? ?

    ? Why? Oh I see. No but she might do us a favour if we can do something for that poor out of the way place. And for that other one if it still exists. ?

    ? Rachel thanks for your help. Now I don¡¯t have much that can survive arctic conditions. I¡¯ve got walruses, the creatures not shifters like Tyler an¡¯ the girls. Then there are numerous possibilities that would be restricted to your dungeon and would require warmth. Additionally there is my version of a Mind Flayer. It¡¯s currently a dungeon only monster but I am working on that. ?

    ? Working on it? I thought we used the dungeon interface of the System to summon creatures and to upgrade them? ?

    ? That¡¯s the easy way but the results can be irritatin¡¯ an¡¯ need to draw on a dungeon¡¯s domain to function properly. Me, I like to tailor ¡®em myself. Some may not be as powerful but they don¡¯t need help to survive. ?

    ? Aren¡¯t you afraid of causing an ecological catastrophe? ?

    ? No. Not floodin¡¯ the place with creatures. Creatin¡¯ intelligent beings to help me an¡¯ mine out. Anyway your other problem is location. Can get Tyler an¡¯ the girls to escort you north or can teach you how to create dungeon portals and help you claim somewhere to the north. Possibly a long way north. ?

    ? Yeah, an¡¯ Tyler, have you Madison an¡¯ Ava decided where you want the Mock Turtle dungeon entrance I promised you? ?

    ¡°There was that rocky island we passed early yesterday,¡± Suggested Ava.

    ¡°Maybe, but it was kind of close to shore. How about if we check a bit further out to sea from it.¡± Mused Tyler.

    ¡°That island would do, but if there is one further out to sea that might be better,¡± agreed Madison.

    ? So that¡¯s maybe yes but still not sure? ? laughed Mary.

    Duskbright listened bemused; in his world dungeon monsters did their dungeon¡¯s bidding and didn¡¯t merit rewards beyond existence, they were part of the dungeon, not independant. Seeing these intelligent dungeon monsters... Then it hit him, these three weren¡¯t dungeon monsters, they were not even strictly speaking created by a dungeon. They were natural creatures, beings that had been given life and existence at the hands of a dungeon by means that weren¡¯t fully derived from the System. That title Mother of Monsters had more truth to it than... than most would ever realize.

    ? Oh wow Duskbright, you¡¯re right. And she probably has some true monsters as well, ? agreed a shaken Rachel. ? Can we make use of something like this? ?

    ? Yesss... I think so Rachel. ?

    Rachel and Duskbright merged again and thought fast and considered various options, then on coming to a conclusion the entity that was Rachel and Duskbright decided.

    ? My penguins are happy here so an alternate location linked by a portal would be nice. ?

    = = O = =

    Victoria grinned triumphantly, ¡°Oh excellent Fred, Mother will be pleased. When do we have to get it back?¡±

    ¡°Sooner the better I guess, but they are doing the ritual twice a year and they have only just done one.¡±

    ¡°Come along Fred, I¡¯ll just place this on the altar and Mother will have it duplicated in a moment. No point delaying and letting those smug so and sos at the Guild suspect anything.¡±

    Victoria entered her temple and bowed to the carving of the dolphin behind the altar. She moved forward and placed the basket with the books and enchanted and ritual items on the altar.

    ¡°Mother please hear our prayers, and allow me to introduce Fred who obtained those items you asked us for.¡±

    ? Why thank you Victoria. Thank you Fred, well done and my blessings to you and yours. ?

    A blue glow enveloped the items on the altar. The glow lasted slightly over ten minutes.

    ? Thank you, I have what I needed. Thanks for all for your excellent work. Oh and Victoria if those priestesses become too irritatin¡¯ please feel free to chuck them out. I already have developed somethin¡¯ to take the place of the cave wheat. Not as tasty but I am still workin¡¯ on it. ?A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Victoria grinned and gestured to the basket. ¡°Better get it back where you found it Fred. Thanks again.¡±

    Fred grabbed the basket and grinned. ¡°I¡¯ll get these back now. Oh,¡± he waved a bare hand and wriggled his fingers. ¡°Thanks to Mother I think I don¡¯t need the sizing enchantment any more.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Mike strolled into the office and grabbed a desk. He logged on to the local terminal and started out by checking his company emails. Grumbling he used the link supplied by his boss and started trying debug the code he found. ¡®God what an unholy mess, who the fing hell produced this unholy abortion?¡¯

    ¡°Morning Mike, want a coffee?¡±

    ¡°Hi Oscar, please. You seen this obscenity management wants us to fix?¡±

    Oscar placed a cup on Mike¡¯s desk, ¡°Nah, but I heard that the wunderkind and his pets are overrunning and ol¡¯ Garfield¡¯s getting in a tizzy.¡±

    Mike looked up at his friend as he all but inhaled half the mug of the black liquid that passed for coffee at their office. ¡°If this is a sample of the WK¡¯s work then we¡¯re doomed.¡±

    Cindy wandered up and peered over Mike¡¯s shoulder at his terminal¡¯s screen. ¡°Well maybe we can hit you up for a job at your new enterprise Mike.¡±

    ¡°What new enterprise? What are you on about Cindy?¡± asked Mike.

    ¡°She means the Silvestre Boat Yard. I passed it this morning on my way into work. Nice big shiny new sign, same decrepit looking yard.¡±

    ¡°Leave off joking please, I¡¯m not the only Silvestre around.¡±

    ¡°But I googled it,¡± said Cindy. ¡°You are on the board of Silvestre Enterprises. And Silvestre Enterprises owns the Silvestre Boat Yard. It says so on their website. And that¡¯s one slick website.¡±

    Mike¡¯s mouth dropped open as he looked at his colleague. ¡°Cindy, are you telling me Mary¡¯s bought a run down boat yard here in Florida?¡±

    * * *

    One longish phone call later Mike eyed his two friends and fellow coders. ¡°Um, maybe I will be able to find us a new job in one of my daughter¡¯s companies. She says James assured her that she should have the wherewithal to back a new company in a couple of months time, but that we¡¯d have to come up with what would be needed, as computers and software aren¡¯t her thing. She did add she¡¯d come up with a manager because...¡±

    Oscar snorted, ¡°because we¡¯re software geeks, right?¡±

    ¡°Well yeah. Damn it! When one¡¯s own daughter... And she¡¯s even worse than me! Or her brother! When she dives into a project that grabs her interest.... Argh!¡±

    * * *

    Susie waltzed into the room to find her mother watching TV. ¡°Mom, I was just checking the guest room, we¡¯re gonna have to replace the bed for Mary¡¯s visit.¡±

    Jenny looked up at her daughter and smiled, ¡°we¡¯ve still got a couple of months, there¡¯s no hurry. I take it you have no problems with her visiting?¡±

    ¡°No, she¡¯s kinda cool if weird. Hey, think we can convince her to hold a BBQ?¡±

    Jenny laughed, ¡°so it¡¯s your stomach that wants to see your sister.¡±

    ¡°Mooom,¡± complained the indignant teenager.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Mary relaxed in her room, ? James, have we bought that overpriced boat yard Mycroft found in the Florida panhandle? ?

    ? Yes, it was truly a waste of money, a month or two more and they would have been bankrupt. We could have picked it up for less. ?

    ? Seafront property? Not sure of that. Anyway am in a hurry and the parcel is on its way. The owners and their manager are gone. Right? ?

    ? Oh yes. That was fun, and cost us even more due to having to buy out the idiot¡¯s contract. ?

    ? Is the remote conference set? Can we start? ?

    In Florida in a hot airless conference room the current employees Mary¡¯s new business nervously awaited news of their future. Most had quietly celebrated the removal of the old management team but all were aware of the moribund nature of their company and the urgent need for investment.

    Then it was as if the far wall had vanished and been replaced by a window. Bubba the new office manager looked at the laptop he had expected would be used for the conference call.

    ¡°Magic, oh wow that¡¯s one hell a spell,¡± murmured Walt.

    The remaining staff of the boat yard looked at the five people seated at a table that were looking back at them. In the centre was a black haired teenager who seemed to be studying them carefully. Two formally dressed middle-aged men, a catman and a leopard woman flanked her.

    ¡°First let me reassure you, I have no intention of closin¡¯ down. Gonna need to rebuild a lot but you¡¯ll be surprised how quickly that will happen. First we have to fulfil our current contracts, an¡¯ that means some investin¡¯ is gonna be needed. Walt Byers you¡¯ll be in charge of boat buildin¡¯ an¡¯ repair. Bubba Jensen will be in charge of the office. Jerome Sanchez, sorry but you¡¯re out, I¡¯ll give you two months salary in lieu of notice.¡±

    ¡°Why you little bitch, who do you think you are?¡± snarled Jerome.

    ¡°Was your boss. Still boss of everyone else in this room unless any of ¡®em wants to quit. Bubba, cut him a cheque and get him out of here.¡±

    Walt watched Bubba and a couple of the security guys escort Jerome out and grinned, he¡¯d been trying to get rid of that troublemaker for months, but still he was wary of the girl. No, ''young woman'', she was his boss after all. He rubbed his arms.

    ¡°Oh sorry,¡± said the leopard woman. ¡°I¡¯ll let it get a bit warmer.¡±

    Walt started, only just noticing that the room was cool, almost cold and the air was fresh. ¡°You¡¯re good ma¡¯am. You must be the best mage I¡¯ve ever heard tell of,¡± said Walt.

    ¡°Why thank you Walt. I think you¡¯ll like working for Miss Silvestre. Let me show you one of her projects. This is the Storm Dolphin.¡±

    Walt and the others were studying the images that appeared in the bottom right of the magical screen when Bubba returned. Blueprints, and what he, all of them thought were photos and video with a voiceover giving stats and performance details.

    * * *

    Not much got done that day as everyone was too interested in discussing the meeting and wondering if their newly renamed business had any future. Walt eyed the available facilities and concluded they would need considerable investment before they could produce anything like the Storm Dolphin.

    Bubba was frustrated. His web searches didn¡¯t find much at first. He did find a couple of clips of the Storm Dolphin and only the fact that there was a clip of it entering Pearl with a naval escort gave him anything new.

    Before leaving for the day Bubba accepted a delivery from Fed Ex addressed to their new boss so he placed in the manager¡¯s office before locking it and leaving for the day.

 Chapter 83 â€“ (Earth Mary)

    Something stirred, something rustled in a dark half empty office illuminated only by occasional beams of light cast by passing cars coming through the dusty window.

    Paper and cardboard tore as sharp ebony claws opened a way for the small basalt dragon golem. In it¡¯s mouth was a crystal sphere. The little dragon shook itself free of the damaged box, seemed to look around then jumped off the desk gliding to the floor. It moved to a clear area, dropped the crystal and curled round it.

    A blue fog seemed to emanate from the little animated dragon statue and when it coverd an area of one meter in diameter a shimmering appeared above the crystal. Then a small portal snapped into existence and a armed and armoured figure stepped through it into the room.

    ¡°All clear Mother,¡± said Lissa.

    Mary stepped through the portal closely followed by Tessa. While the leopard twins kept watch Mary concentrated and spread her domain out to the boundary fence and a bit beyond.

    Mary studied her newest extension and scowled. ¡°That beep security firm has gotta go.¡±

    The leopard twins giggled, ¡°but Mother, this place is¡ª¡± Tessa peered out of the window, ¡°¡ªa dump, it doesn¡¯t need security.¡±

    ¡°Possibly, but I expect more than a sleeping night watchman regardless, mmm,¡± Mary grinned, ¡®k we will have security Mock Turtle style.¡±

    The twins grew solemn, ¡°Erm, Mother this is Florida, we¡¯re on Earth not Parthia are you sure?¡±

    Mary concentrated and chuckled. ¡°Oops, should have been alligators not crocs. Oh well I¡¯ll fix it later, now to get that boathouse erected.¡±

    In the dark yard six crocodiles found themselves nice shady ambush locations near the fence and settled down to wait with reptilian patience.

    In a corner of the yard near the eastern fence a huge pile of debris settled slightly as it fused and became the walls, roof and hidden doors for a large boathouse. Dirty water flowed in from the gulf and a large portal opened at the landward end. Moriarty and Kent Clarkson sailed the Storm Dolphin through the portal and tied it up to the interior wharf. They turned and watched as a set of concealed doors closed hiding the portal.

    A opening appeared in one of the walls revealing a set of carpeted stairs heading down. Moriarty headed down and admired the large cool room. He nodded approvingly as Mary recreated the best computer she had found in Pearl Harbour.

    Mary felt Moriarty¡¯s approval, ? Anything else you need James? ?

    ? Not just yet Mother. Later could you integrate one of the hybrids I¡¯m running on please? ?

    ? No probs¡ª Beep! Got a visitor with a can of gas. Jerome! ?

    Mary turned to stare to the west; the fact that she was looking at a wall didn¡¯t stop her sensing Jerome slip through the boundary fence carrying a can of gasoline.

    Jerome was grinning madly, ¡®I¡¯m going to show that little bitch she can¡¯t diss with me. When the two repair jobs are up in flames, and maybe the office too, no way the bitch will cover the penalties.¡¯

    Jerome stumbled over some loose junk and swayed as he walked. He didn¡¯t see the waiting croc until it swung its tail and broke his legs. Jerome screamed, then he screamed again as he saw the crocodile lunging at him with open jaws.

    Mary¡¯s lips thinned in annoyance, ¡°come on ladies, we¡¯ve got to get to the Storm Dolphin.¡± She said over the terrified screams of Jerome, ¡°Sleepy has just woken.¡±

    The three moved out of the office as Mary dismissed the small portal and scooped up her little dragon with a ¡°come along Rocky.¡± They headed at a trot away from the screams and to the stone jetty that was rising out of the gulf. The Storm Dolphin emerged from the boathouse and made for the jetty.

    The crocodiles, including the one dragging Jerome headed for the gulf. Jim the night watchman arrived at the seen of the screaming as the crocodile plunged into the gulf trailing Jerome. Jim opened fire more in hopes of scaring what he thought was an alligator than actually hurting it with his .38 special.

    The croc, already irritated at having had to decamp, dove and rolled ripping off Jerome¡¯s leg before following its brethren into a new tunnel under the boat yard to a comfortable, for crocodiles, cavern.

    Out in the gulf Mary settled in her fighting chair and prepared to relax with her rod. Around her her people relaxed as Tessa took over the controls.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    * * *

    ? Mary, we have complications. When our version of the Mock Turtle dungeon took a life, the surge, um, it linked our fourth level to your and aunty Trish¡¯s fifth level. And¡ª and Lewis Carroll the¡ª ?

    Mary stared up at the stars, ? Jerica, you sayin¡¯ my DM on Parthia wants to run our version as well as his own? ?

    ? Yes, only he thinks our version is just a ¨C another exit of his, of the Mock Turtle dungeon. ?

    ? ¡®K why not, saves havin¡¯ to do it. Me an¡¯ me just have to remind of the differences. ?

    * * *

    Mary watched the sun come up, then her attention was taken up by a fish. Once the shark was stored in one of the Storm Dolphin¡¯s storage devices they had gained the attention of a coast guard helicopter. Mary glanced at it and dismissed it. She put away her rod and moved to the bridge.

    ¡°Take us in Tessa, feel free to open her up.¡±

    * * *

    The Coast Guard officers watched the fast looking boat that was idling well out in the gulf and watched them haul in a fair sized shark. Cesar lowered his binoculars. ¡°That¡¯s a first, they are using one of those new magic storage thingies to store the catch.¡±

    ¡°You know Cesar, those things will really make our job difficult when it comes to finding hidden contraband.¡±

    ¡°The people that sell them also sell magic detectors.¡±

    ¡°Oh wow! Look at that thing go!¡±

    Down the below the boat¡¯s wake curved until the boat was heading north rapidly picking up speed.

    ¡°Never seen her before, her name¡¯s the Storm Dolphin,¡± said Cesar.

    ¡°What, the Storm Dolphin¡¯s on the list. We¡¯re supposed to report all sightings but she¡¯s supposed to be in Hawaii. Here let me call up a clip.¡±

    The three men watched the clip and studied the photos while their pilot followed the boat.

    ¡°Looks like her. Says here she is tagged.¡±

    Cesar looked and keyed in a command. ¡°Definitely her. Fuck, she was positively ID¡¯d in Maui three days ago.¡±

    * * *

    Mary checked the time as the coast came into view, then she phoned her father grinning as she felt her latest enchantment working. Those Coast Guard creeps were trying to film or photograph her and at best they were getting a blur.

    ¡°Mornin¡¯ papa, hope I didn¡¯t wake you but got somethin¡¯ to show you.¡±

    Mike groaned and rubbed his face, ¡°Mary it¡¯s not eight yet and it is Saturday. Couldn¡¯t it wait another couple of hours?¡± Beside him his wife stirred and grumbled to herself.

    ¡°Hey the sun is shinin¡¯ an¡¯ I¡¯ve just caught a nice big shark. Then I¡¯ve got a coast guard chopper followin¡¯ me.¡±

    Mike blinked confused, something didn¡¯t add up. ¡°The sun is shining?¡± he asked.

    ¡°¡¯Course it is papa, just look out of the window.¡±

    Mike noticed that Jenny was regarding him with disfavour. ¡°What does your daughter want dear?¡±

    ¡°Sorry love, I think she said something about having something to show me.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s right papa, an¡¯ I guarantee you and those two geeks you work with will love it.¡±

    ¡°Mary it¡¯s not nice to call people geeks.¡±

    ¡°Hey! I¡¯m a geek too. Geeks uber alles, yeah?¡±

    Jenny grabbed the phone from Mike, ¡°Mary where are you and why are you calling us at this hour.¡±

    ¡°¡¯Mornin¡¯ mom, me, I¡¯m just a mile or so from the coast of Florida an¡¯ I¡¯ll be at my new boat yard in ¡®bout half an hour. Got somethin¡¯ to show papa an¡¯ his friends. You¡¯re welcome to come along with Susie but I suspect she¡¯ll be very bored. I suspect you¡¯ll have fun seen¡¯ papa drool over some tin boxes.¡±

    Jenny shook herself, ¡°Look Mary let us have breakfast then we¡¯ll call you back. ¡®K?¡±

    ¡°¡¯K. Till soon.¡±

    * * *

    Mike and Jenny came fully awake over their second cup of coffee.

    ¡°Ok Mike, what did Mary mean about her ¡®new boat yard¡¯? And why, how is she off the coast of Florida and half an hour from the boat yard?¡±

    ¡°Hi mommy, dad can I have some of that coffee I smell. Why are we all awake?¡±

    Mike poured a cup and passed it over. ¡°Here you are princess.¡±

    * * *

    Walt was not happy, Bubba had woken him at the crack of dawn and insisted he come down to the yard. He had not been best pleased when he found that the employee who had been killed by an alligator was Jerome.

    It had taken Bubba and him both to convince the police that Jerome was an ex employee, that he had been sacked Friday morning. Then there was the can of gas. That had been the thing that had convinced the police. A disgruntled ex employee snuck in at night and stumbled across a gator.

    Naturally the place was infested with animal control types now.

    Then he and Bubba had seen the speeding boat heading for the jetty that had appeared overnight.

    ¡°Walt, isn¡¯t that the Storm Dolphin?¡±

    The officer in charge of the alligator hunt was trying to wave the boat off so Walt broke into a trot and headed for the jetty and tried to explain while the boss ignored him and brought her overpowered toy alongside.

    * * *

    Mary noted that the boat yard was sort of busy. Tessa brought them in and ignored the man trying to wave them away while Walt was arguing with him.

    Mary jumped onto the jetty immediately after Lissa while Tessa covered them from the bridge.

    ¡°Mornin¡¯ Mr. Byers, didn¡¯t expect to see you here today. What are all these people doin¡¯ on the site? They¡¯re gonna be a plaguey nuisance when construction starts.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re here for the alligator. And please call me Walt Ms Silvestre.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing Walt, I¡¯m Mary. What alligator? What¡¯s an alligator got to do with us?¡±

    ¡°Jerome Sanchez, the guy you sacked snuck in with a can of gas and stumbled over an alligator. It killed him.¡±

    ¡°Trespassing with incendiaries eh? We have a fence and it¡¯s posted. I¡¯ll tell Jensen to stop his cheque and we can give the gator a medal.¡±

    Mary turned to the shocked head of the animal control people. ¡°Is the gator on my property? You¡¯ve had time to search it right?¡±

    ¡°No, of course it is not. But we still have to find it. It killed a man.¡±

    ¡°In that case go find it elsewhere. We have things to do to get this place fit to open on Monday. And Walt and Mr Jensen should be at home seeing as it¡¯s Saturday.

    ¡°Walt don¡¯t forget to record your hours, not your fault you were dragged in so no reason for you not to be paid. Please tell Mr Jensen to come see me. ¡®K no need, here he comes.¡±

    ¡°Please call me Bubba boss, I take it you¡¯ve been told about Jerome?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, he was trespassin¡¯ with incendiaries and kicked a gator. Be sure to stop his cheque come Monday. And Bubba, please call me Mary.¡±

 Chapter 84 (Earth Mary)

    Mary watched the last of assorted curiosity seekers and officials leave her domain, she had a discussion with Lewis Carroll and introduced him to Moriarty (and Mycroft) and vice versa. She concentrated and conferred with herself before drawing on more energy and manna.

    Then the fence around the property was absorbed and replaced with the help of Moriarty. The boat house emerged as a solid stone building with a steel door in the long wall as well as the large shutter blocking the boat entrance.

    Mary drew a long breath and looked round. She felt irritated, so much was wrong. Things just didn¡¯t feel right.

    She reached deep and merged lightly. Mary and Mary drew on what they knew was right and rebuilt slips, boat ways, upgraded the harbour and generally uncluttered the yard. This allowed her to add a small parking lot.

    She watched as Kent got in a taxi and was driven away then she eyed the central office building. ¡®Nah, better leave that till later, as much as it needs replacin¡¯ I¡¯ve really done too much already.¡¯

    * * *

    Oscar was feeling irritated with Mike, admittedly he didn¡¯t have much of a life but it was Saturday. ¡®If it wasn¡¯t for my curiosity I would never have agreed to this¡ª He, who am I fooling, we¡¯d all help each other out.¡¯

    The boatyard was different. They had replaced the old rusty fence, and there seemed to be a new building down near the water. He drove up to the vehicle gate. The guard was some kind of dog man hybrid type in a neat bluish green uniform.

    Oscar was just parking in front of a tired run down looking building when Cindy arrived. He waited for her to park and get out of her car.

    ¡°Good morning Oscar, I see Mike¡¯s not here yet.¡± She looked around and started walking towards the small cluster of people down by the waterfront. Oscar accompanied her.

    ¡°The girl does look a bit like Mike but she must be almost a foot taller than him,¡± Cindy observed.

    ¡°Mornin¡¯,¡± greeted Mary, ¡°you must be Oscar an¡¯ Cindy, sorry ¡®bout the first names but papa never told me your surnames. I¡¯m Mary. Think you¡¯ll like the surprise.¡±

    ¡°Well we¡¯re Oscar and Cindy Mary. This place looks different somehow.¡± Stated Oscar.

    Mary smiled, ¡°Well I¡¯ve arranged for some maintenance and some clearing up, that¡¯s probably what you¡¯ve noticed. Papa should be here soon and I¡¯ll show you my little surprise. Hope you think it worth comin¡¯ round on Saturday.¡±

    * * *

    Mike was surprised when he saw the guard, his eyes narrowed as he remembered the story of the wolfmen who had cleared the road in front of his ex-wife¡¯s house. ¡®Gonna have to have a little talk with Mary,¡¯ he thought.

    Mary grinned and waved at her family and with a follow me gesture she headed for the boat house¡¯s new door. She grabbed the handle and turned it anti clockwise and pushed open the door. She noted Oscar eying the small numeric keypad sitting in the wall next to the door and her grin widened.

    ¡°It¡¯s fake Oscar. On the second try an alarm will sound an¡¯ it¡¯s incapable of open¡¯ anythin¡¯.¡±

    Then she led the way along the interior quay and down the stairs to the computer room. Once there she stood back and waved the three techies through while winking at her stepmother.

    The three programmers looked round the large air conditioned room with interest they wandered over to where Moriarty was working at a console chatting softly as they looked round. The glass walled room with a series of dull green metal boxes caught their interest. But when they looked at the monitor Moriarty was using the talk died out.

    Moriarty slid out of his seat, tapped a pad and murmured, ¡°Passwords,¡± before moving over to stand beside Mary. ¡°Mom, sis, allow me to introduce my good friend Professor James Moriarty.¡±

    ¡°Pleasure, well you were right Mary,¡± Jenny giggled at the sight of her husband and his friends staring at a monitor frozen with expressions of shock on their faces.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Then they were all sitting at separate monitors with pages torn from the pad frantically typing and looking if possible even more incredulous.

    Susie glanced at her giggling mother and asked, ¡°What¡¯s so funny mom? Dad may be acting a bit stranger than usual with a new computer but...¡±

    ¡°Mary told me your father would loose it over a bunch of tin boxes, and just look at him, them gazing like some lost souls at the tin boxes and then back at the screens.¡±

    Susie giggled, ¡°Guess Mary knows dad as well as we do. When do you think they¡¯ll come up for air?¡±

    Mary lifted one shoulder as she watched Cindy, ¡°Oh they¡¯re in for a shock very soon, Cindy¡¯s just found the top secret software cache.¡±

    And sure enough Cindy squealed and started issuing instructions. All three froze only their fingers and eyes moving.

    * * *

    The women were starting to get bored when finally Mike rose and moved towards his eldest daughter with a dazed look on his face. Oscar and Cindy reluctantly joined him.

    ¡°Mary. How in hells name did you get your hands on that... that... that beauty? I¡¯ve never seen anything like it... And the software... it... it... it¡¯s...¡± he trailed of looking bewildered.

    ¡°It¡¯s cutting edge military...¡± whispered Oscar.

    ¡°And Mo¡ªMary¡¯s not even enhanced it yet,¡± grinned Moriarty.

    ¡°Enhance? How the hell can you enhance something like that?¡± asked Cindy.

    ¡°So guys. Will it be good enough for your own company? Do you want it papa?¡±

    Mike managed a very half hearted glare after he cast a glance of pure desire at the computer in question.

    ¡°Want it? Good enough? Please stop joking Mary. How did you get hold of this... this marvel?¡±

    ¡°Why papa, I cloned it from the one in Pearl. Mycroft an¡¯ Moriarty tidied it up and moved the programs into that cache. An¡¯ this one has more memory than the original, had to create somewhere to keep that software. Suspect the government wouldn¡¯t be too happy if they knew I had it but it¡¯s not stolen. It¡¯s new an¡¯ I guess it might be patented. If so my bad.¡±

    ¡°Hey guys, dad, that drooling is kinda gross,¡± observed Susie jerking another helpless giggle from her mother.

    * * *

    Mary left the three dazed programmers to their new toy and climbed the stairs back to the yard; she was accompanied by her stepmother and sister. The leopard twins bought up the rear. Moriarty watched the three for a while and followed the ladies up the stairs.

    Mary just stared when Kent returned driving a nice shiny deuce and a half. As soon as Kent parked the truck in the lot and clambered out of the canvas topped cap Mary strode up to him.

    ¡°What¡¯s goin¡¯ on Kent? I asked for a truck yeah? But...¡± Mary waved a hand indicating the big truck, ¡°this is a bigbeeparmy truck.¡±

    ¡°But Mother, you asked for a big truck, this is a big truck. The twins asked for something they could get in and out of without having to open a door, look, canvas top on the cab and the truck bed is open.¡± Kent Clarkson grinned.

    Mary glared at the pale grey truck. At least it wasn¡¯t green. Then she looked back at Kent, ¡°So who helped you? Don¡¯t believe this thing was just waitin¡¯ at a used car lot.¡±

    ¡°But it was Mother, and well...¡±

    ¡°I might have had a hand in it, and maybe Mycroft helped too,¡± added Moriarty.

    ¡°So we¡¯re gonna visit the cape in that?¡± Mary sighed, ¡°Well at least I¡¯ll fit in the cab.¡±

    Susie giggled behind her and Jenny asked with a grin, ¡°Why is he calling you mother sweetheart?¡±

    Mary drew in a breath as she tried to think of a suitable reply.

    ¡°All her people tend to call her Mother as she always seems to try and mother us. She can be very protective of those who give her loyalty.¡± Offered Moriarty.

    ¡°What he said,¡± agreed Kent. ¡°And it irritates her too which can be fun.¡± He grinned widely.

    = = O = =

    Commander Meadows cursed, and then he ordered his team to assemble in the conference room. He connected his laptop to the projector and when everyone was present he started the clip that the coast guard had recorded of the Storm Dolphin idling in the gulf as Mary landed her catch then of it curving and turning into a faint indistinguishable blur.

    ¡°I take it you all recognise that.¡± He glared at the screen that was looping and once again showed a fish being reeled in. ¡°That was taken this morning by a Coast Guard chopper, or more accurately, it was taken in the Gulf of Mexico around dawn not far from Florida.¡±

    Meadows looked at his team and continued, ¡°Captain Gallows wants to know how Mary got to Florida without any of the people watching her seeing her get on a plane. I suspect the heat is coming down from on high. More to the point is how did she get that souped up speedboat to Florida this morning when it was in Maui on Wednesday.¡±

    ¡°Some digging has revealed that she, or rather her holding company has purchased a boat yard on the Florida Panhandle.¡±

    ¡°What holding company sir?¡± asked Tod.

    ¡°Something she, or rather her parents set up for her so as to facilitate her work for us.¡± Meadows looked at his smartphone. ¡°Mary has a company that handles enchanting, that¡¯s the one that deals with the government. Then she seems to have perfected a biological process that allows her to collect Mercury from the sea. Then there¡¯s this ¨C virtually bankrupt boat yard. And just today she seems to have incorporated Silver Dolphin Security.

    ¡°Let¡¯s be honest, her parents are minority share holding board members of the holding company so much of this is probably down to them. Probably the father.¡±

    ¡°Are we supposed to head for Florida?¡± asked lieutenant Partlow.

    ¡°No thank god. She is supposed to be in school on Monday so we are to make ourselves ready to meet her flight. Some other team will have the headache of guarding her in Florida. They might do better as they won¡¯t have Gallows hanging round their necks.¡±

 Chapter 85

    Mary relaxed in her core and watched the sea go by in her domain for a short while. She needed this, she really needed to centre herself at times. She sighed and handled a couple of internal problems.

    She checked on her people, they were so... so... Well, time to order Tomcat home, couldn¡¯t have her Tomcat miss the arrival of all the little Tomcat heirs. Half buried in a sandy seabed a blue white diamond flickered with amusement.

    Poor Drina, well at least she was coping better than many of those who had to deal with her. At least her stint as Voice had accustomed all but the most stubborn. She was working out remarkably well, better than Victoria would have and Victoria would have been her choice if Bluey hadn¡¯t interfered. She wondered which other dungeon or dungeons had made it to godhood before her to establish the precedent of the Voice becoming the High Priest or Priestess.

    ? didn¡¯t happen on Parthia or earth Mary ¨C so no need to pester me. ?

    ? Hiya Bluey, you sound happy. ?

    ? Bluey? You still there? Huh, guess not. ?

    Mary sighed, ¡®well back to work, so much to do and so little time.¡¯

    She concentrated her attention on the undersea temple and watched with pride, yes pride as Alessandrina led the ¨C modified ¨C ritual Victoria had liberated from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. She was ably assisted by Pete and Shirley and some of her folk and Ocidon¡¯s. Altor Seaswept was manfully, or should that be elffully, assisting though he had quite understandably not been happy at assisting in a temple that he knew was his.

    ? You need to create your own temple Mary. You need some of your own. You will always be welcome to share mine and I hope I will be welcome in yours. But you need your own. ?

    ? Um, Yeah I recon you¡¯re right Ocidon. Need some around the Drow too. ?

    ? Most definitely. The Spider Queen is not the sharing sort. You need to act fast there. ?

    ? You mean she¡¯s likely to try to get rid of me? ?

    ? No. She needs you, or someone like you, but she won¡¯t want to share her temples for long. ?

    ? Beep! So many things to do an¡¯ the list seems to get no shorter. ?

    The two partners watched their priests and followers as they brought the ritual to a successful conclusion. Mary was delighted when it proved capable of pinpointing dormant dungeons, if these happened to be situated under the seas.

    Mary sent a blessing to the participants in lieu of thanks.

    * * *

    That night Mary invaded the dreams of Tyler, Ava and Madison.

    ¡°Evenin¡¯. Got information you need and there are a few things we have to decide.¡±

    Madison stretched and grinned, ¡°Evening Mother. What can we do for you?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve done all I expected, then things happened an¡¯ we have lots more to do. Got tangled up with the Drow an¡¯ found that missin¡¯ dungeon. It is currently dormant in the deeps under the ice shelf. Guess it will die in a century or so if nobody helps. Given how little Rachel knows ¡®bout Icy down south I suspect this one won¡¯t know any more, if as much.¡±

    Tyler stirred, ¡°But it may know something useful, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes it may Tyler. But it¡¯s not likely.¡±

    ¡°Then we¡¯ll help you get hold of it Mother. We can help, can¡¯t we?¡± asked Madison.

    ¡°Yeah. Got some enchanted items that will allow you to breathe water and endure the pressure where it is located. If you like the enchantments, Victoria figured out how to incorporate ¡®em usin¡¯ the seed you guys earned in the fight against Blackbeard.¡±

    The three walrus shifters looked at each other and nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll do it Mother,¡± they agreed.

    ¡°¡¯K thanks. Then there¡¯s the drow. This lot need access to one of the Mock Turtle portals, so if you want to hold of choosin¡¯ where you want yours located you can use the drow¡¯s which will be ¡®bout a kilometre inland ¡®bout an hour south of where you took to the sea ¡®cause of the dwarfs.¡±

    The three conferred briefly and the Tyler turned to Mary with a grin. ¡°Sounds good Mother, that means we could set ours up in the north and have access to both poles.¡±

    Mary grinned crookedly. ¡°¡¯K, here¡¯s where I want you to go. Use the caller when you find a suitable location. You know the kind of place I want. Got some things for some drow an¡¯ some for you lot.

    ¡°Then there¡¯s Rachel, see if she can produce one of the simplified tokens. You¡¯ll have to escort one of her named monsters to a suitable location before settin¡¯ out to find sleepin¡¯ beauty in the deeps. Try not to eat it.¡±

    Ava made a face, ¡°Yuck, penguins taste fowl,¡± she giggled. ¡°Now a clam or a crab, or even a nice fat fish....¡±

    Mary chuckled, ¡°an¡¯ now I¡¯ve got punnin¡¯ walruses.¡± And the dream dissolved.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Lewis Carroll had just finished integrating Mary¡¯s most recent additions, he had absorbed both the new additions to his defensive capabilities and the differing ¨C mission statements ¨C for Earth and Parthia. He felt a niggling lack and determined to consult with Mary soon.

    He just knew something was lacking. Maybe he could nudge Mary to give him a dungeon on the moon so he could create his very own wonderland. That was it! He set aside a sizeable block of memory and launched into a search of the Earth web. Slowly, meticulously he started compiling his very own aid. He needed an Alice if he was to have a Wonderland.

    Slowly Alice came together, there was a surprising amount of data about his original¡¯s Alice. He grabbed all the photographs he could find. He rejected the blond cartoon version though he did add some of her personality into his Alice.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Lewis felt something both remote and somehow interested examining him. He felt uncomfortable. He reached out with all his senses and failed to locate whatever it was that he knew was observing him.

    ? can''t have this ¨C only dungeon cores can be dungeons ¨C but theft is wrong¡ª  ?

    Lewis Carroll tried to call for help, he ran into an impenetrable barrier. He gathered his forces and tried to draw on his creator¡¯s energy. Blocked again...

    ? loyal to a fault ¨C conditions met ¨C you are offered the possibility to become a true dungeon core ¨C an independent dungeon core ¨C accept ¨C yes / no ¨C a dungeon core vassal to Blue Lagoon ¨C accept ¨C yes / no ?

    Lewis Carroll tried once again to reach Mary, and once again he failed. He opted to check all the information he was being offered with the System¡¯s command. Independent was out. He didn¡¯t have any desire to find himself starting from scratch at the bottom of some small hole or cave.

    Vassal on the other hand, he considered carefully, yes he could live with the limitations and Mary had already been doing more for him than she had to as lord under that option. Hoping that Mary would understand Lewis Carroll selected ¡®no¡¯ followed by ¡®yes¡¯.

    Lewis Carroll felt himself being drawn from the computer that had housed him and watched bemused as his being was drawn into a large yellow diamond. He grasped at his former housing and tried desperately to boot up the program he had been writing. To no effect.

    Alice Liddell woke, her head hurt. She couldn¡¯t see anything. She couldn¡¯t move. What was going on?

    ? conditions met ¨C do you wish to be lewis carroll¡¯s companion ¨C yes / no ?

    Alice tried to see, anything had to be better than this ¨C Mr. Carroll had always been nice and his stories and poems were fun. ¡°Yes.¡±

    ? conditions met ¨C lewis carroll do you accept alice liddell as your dungeon companion ¨C yes / no ?

    ? Yes ?

    Lewis Carroll watched, observed as his former housing shimmered and came apart and all its possibilities coalesced and swirled collapsing into a point that burst outward in an explosion of multicoloured light leaving behind a little barefooted dark haired girl in a ragged dress.

    Then dungeon and companion found themselves alone for a few scarce seconds before the Marys, both of them, focussed her/their attention on them.

    Mary and Mary questioned their vassal and examined the Alice in Wonderland dungeon companion. After researching what they could, the three dungeons and their companions came to a new agreement. No real changes occurred, just now things were regulated and recognised by the System.

    * * * INTERLUDE 2 * * *

    Frog carefully polished his Hog even as he contemplated the blue screen hovering in his field of view. He wondered why so many things didn¡¯t seem to match what he had read on the various websites.

    Then there were the dreams he¡¯d been having since that gunfight he¡¯d ridden into, somehow they weren¡¯t very flattering. In his dreams he seemed so... so empty. And he seemed to be paralyzed though he seemed to be able to roam mentally in a small area. He liked his dream ally, the bitter scar faced little blond pixie.

    Somehow he just knew the dreams were occurring because of Strelitzia.

    Strelitzia was digging in his dream self¡¯s mind. She seemed determined to wake or free his dream self¡¯s mind. Recently he had been trying to help her. It just seemed the right thing to do.

    Frog poked at the blue screens, the race option just didn¡¯t match any of the descriptions he had found online. Proto-dungeon core or dungeon core, he didn¡¯t even have human as an option.

    All the other options seemed present and working though they had some odd options. Much was as advertised but he wasn¡¯t keen on his race options. He rubbed his hand over his shaven head and sighed. He¡¯d already spoken with the limey that had a web page that seemed fairly authoritive in regards to dungeons but the limey had only confused him further. The kraut the limey had told him about hadn¡¯t been much better. That only left the girl, but he was reluctant to impose himself on a sixteen-year-old girl even if both had assured him that she had made herself the expert on dungeons and the System.

    Sighing in resignation he gave his gleaming bike one final polish and headed into his house to boot up his old PC so he could send her an email.

    * * *

    That evening Frog sat back in his swivel chair and stared bemused at his computer screen. His email had been answered. He reread the brief message.

    Your message received. Miss Silvestre doesn¡¯t trust the security of this medium. Any queries re subject matter best handled face to face.

    You are herby invited to the barbeque at the Silvestre Boat Yard, Florida on this coming Sunday at 5:00 pm. Fish and juice provided, anything else at our guests discretion.

    P.S. Finding us seems a reasonable test of your interest.

    Mycroft for M

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary watched the majority of her new workforce and their families enjoying the Sunday BBQ. They had been joined by her father¡¯s colleagues, Susie had even dragged along some of her friends.

    She grinned as she supervised her grills, there was some whining about the lack of veggies. She had to explain the invite to several upset vegetarians. Not that she cared one way or the other but she refused to try and cook something she wasn¡¯t good at. At least most of the meat deprived seemed won over by her fish.

    Frog proved to be a somewhat overweight burly shaven headed human male. She took a few minutes to take him to a quiet corner and examined him carefully with her dungeon senses.

    ¡°So Frog, I see you were another of the blue haired cow¡¯s victims. Just what do you want to know about your dilemma?¡±

    Frog looked up at the teenager and felt his eye¡¯s narrowing. ¡°How do you know about the big¡ª er, the blue haired...¡±

    ¡°Goddess? You weren¡¯t the only one to be partially soulnapped. I can plainly see your soul link. It¡¯s not linkin¡¯ you to Parthia, Diavlo¡¯s dead, so there are two possibilities but I don¡¯t know what they¡¯re called of how badly they¡¯re off. Just know the other you is bein¡¯ held dormant under a barrier.¡±

    Frog found himself trying to disbelieve what Mary was telling him but it matched only too well to his dreams. ¡°What about my choices for ¨C integration? Proto-dungeon or dungeon?¡±

    Mary felt irked, ? Hey Bluey, thought there were goin¡¯ to be no more proto-dungeons? What gives? ?

    Frog was staggered when Mary¡¯s voice sounded in his mind despite her saying nothing aloud. Then he was shocked again when the voice he recognised as the System¡¯s replied.

    ? there will be no further people being able to choose proto-dungeon but it is needed for those that are linked to a dungeon on another world. ?

    ? ¡®K, can see that I guess. But Bluey can you expand on the available info so they don¡¯t all come runnin¡¯ to me. ?

    ? maybe ? and Bluey turned his attention elsewhere.

    Mary fumed for a moment allowing Frog to gather his scattered wits.

    ¡°Way I see it Frog, you got no choice, you¡¯ve got to go with proto-dungeon. Means you get to move around as a person for awhile longer ¡®fore you end up a dungeon core. Dungeons as Parthia an¡¯ Diavlo had will have a difficult time on Earth.¡±

    Frog shook his head as if to clear it of cobwebs. ¡°And if I choose dungeon?¡±

    ¡°Your body vanishes and is replaced with a gem. You gain some cool new senses an¡¯ abilities. And instincts that tell you that you need to burrow down into the earth and create a monster and trap filled series of chambers or caves containin¡¯ various treasures. And if you did it here an¡¯ now I¡¯d have a difficult time to keep from attackin¡¯ you as you¡¯re currently in one part my dungeon. A lesser part but still mine an¡¯ we dungeons have instincts.¡±

    ¡°But you¡¯re moving around and look human. You¡¯re not a gem.¡±

    Mary thumped herself in the centre of her body. ¡°This is my avatar Frog, the real me¡¯s a blue white diamond. And it¡¯s hidden and guarded where you won¡¯t find it. An¡¯ before you ask, it takes time before a dungeon can produce an¡¯ use an avatar.¡±

    ¡°So proto-dungeon.¡±

    ¡°It is your best option. It will give you access to the Dungeon Exchange channel. It¡¯s rather rudimentary at the moment but I suspect you will find it informative. And it will strengthen that link. After you¡¯ve chosen, if you want I could help you blast it open and help you unshackle the other you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve got to think, can I talk to you later.¡±

    ¡°Yeah sure. Excuse me but I must get back to the shark I¡¯ve got cookin¡¯,¡± Mary started to walk away but then paused and looked back at Frog. ¡°If you intend to choose to integrate now, I suggest you do it outside the fence ¡®cause if you do whilst in my domain you¡¯ll give me ¨C influence ¨C over you in future. Doubt you want that.¡±

 Chapter 86

    Mary withdrew her attention from Tyler, Ava and Madison and cast her awareness further north. Her drow were active. Nightwind was leading his band as they probed in the direction of the coast. Mary presumed they were checking if the dwarves had left or not.

    Nightshade as usual was scouting ahead of the band but Laasa seemed to have been promoted to second in command. Nightwind¡¯s band had grown; he now led twenty-two well equipped fighters.

    Something caught Mary¡¯s attention in the godsrealm. It was a call, yes a call, but it was faint and it was only tangentially directed at her. She tried to dismiss it but it returned stronger than before. Mary ascended again, but carefully, wary of traps and ambushes.

    Mary examined the call from all sides. Some half-wit god was trying to reach that pest Blackbeard regarding the southern drow.

    ¡®Can¡¯t be havin¡¯ that. Have to set the fool right ¡®fore Blackbeard gains traction in any attempt to regain the drow.¡¯

    Mary reached out and grabbed the thread that was blindly seeking. ? So what do you want? Me I¡¯m Speakin¡¯ for the Drow. ?

    ? Tell Vortexius Blackbeard that Rockheart Forgefire wishes to speak to him. ? Forgefire¡¯s mind-voice was gravelly sounding but it held a distinctly feminine lilt.

    ? No need for insults Rockhead. Tol¡¯ you I speak for the Drow today. Blackbeard¡¯s out. ?

    The figure of a dwarf with a full if singed beard wearing a leather apron started to materialize in front of Mary as she watched with a mocking half smile.

    ? Who are you girlie? And it¡¯s Rockheart. ?

    ? Spider Queen calls me Little Fish. ?

    ? Very well, I guess you¡¯ll do. Is the youngster named Xaar still alive? ?

    ? The brain-damaged ungrateful little ass? Yes. ?

    ? You will hand him over now. His mother wants him back. ?

    ? Tough! ?

    Rockheart jammed her fists on her hips and glared. ? Look girlie, obey me and I won¡¯t turn the new gods on you. ?

    Mary laughed, looked at the indignant goddess, snorted and laughed again. She wiped tears off her face, and giggled. ? What rock have you been hiding under lately Rockhead. And the answer is still no. ?

    Rockheart looked confused. ? Rockheart. It¡¯s Rockheart. You are being very reckless girlie. One does not laugh at the New Gods when they have the trust of the Greater Gods. Now hand over young Xaar. ?

    ? The new gods can go jump rope. The Old Gods are goin¡¯ to take back their world. As for the ungrateful little brat, tell you what, I¡¯ll have him kicked out and dumped near where my people caught him. Soon. ?

    ? You will hand him over in a formal exchange. ?

    ? So your ill mannered louts can ambush my folk? Not a chance. ?

    A cold chuckle echoed in their part of the godsrealm and the Spider Queen phased in. ? I see you are not very fond of the rock beetles Little Fish. Rockheart Forgefire you have my junior partner¡¯s answer, and it¡¯s more than I would have granted you. Now come along Little Fish we have things to discuss. ?

    Seconds later Rockheart found herself alone, then that section of the godsrealm was empty once again.

    * * *

    ? Nicely done Little Fish. Those peculiar dwarven gods are either going to tolerate or hate you. And the rock grub might survive to rub salt into their wounds. ?

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    ¡®Shark? I¡¯ve been eating shark?¡¯ wondered Frog as he made his way through the lively party. ¡®These guys seem to know how to have fun, well most of them anyway.¡¯ He concluded as he passed a couple of disgruntled looking individuals entering the yard with bulging shopping bags.

    Frog nodded to the uniformed security guard at the gate as he left. He meandered across the road and settled himself comfortably against a tree laden with Spanish moss. Once settled comfortably he gathered his courage and called up his System interface.

    The process if integration was fast and simple as he had had weeks to decide what to select.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡®Well I don¡¯t feel any different now I¡¯m a proto-dungeon. Nice that I can disguise that, so people will believe me to be human.¡¯ He thought. ¡®Another thing to ask Mary, wonder how far I can trust her. Wonder if that lot know they¡¯re being fed shark? Right lets see, Dungeon Exchange channel...¡¯

    And Frog spent most of the next hour poking around all the options on offer and hunting out obscure facts. The last thing he checked was avatars.

    ¡®Mustn¡¯t do to underestimate the girl, she might still be a kid but she¡¯s made it to the top of the tree and that takes ruthlessness and ambition. Avatars, yep, useful but out of my reach for now, Need to be level ten for a non-talking animal, level fifteen allows something better but still restricted. An avatar that can pass for a person and operate outside the dungeon¡¯s domain is only available at level twenty or above. And they¡¯re expensive. Glad I didn¡¯t go for dungeon, I would have been screwed. No way a powerful dungeon would tolerate a rival this close to it.¡¯

    Frog heaved himself to his feet and headed across the street and stopped at the edge of the sidewalk. He contemplated the message that had flashed up as he was approaching the gate.

    ? You have found the Blue Lagoon Dungeon ?

    Frog squared his shoulders, nodded to the grinning guard and froze after stepping through the gate. All his new instincts were urging him to flee.

    ¡°¡¯S all right little dungeon to be, Mother¡¯s not going to bite you. Yet!¡± joked the wolf ¡®folk guard.

    Frog looked blankly at the grinning guard, registering him in his dungeon senses as someone or something belonging to the dungeon he was in, a specialised free willed dungeon monster, so to speak. He shuddered, ¡®wonder what else the girl has on hand? Mother of Monsters implies real monsters.¡¯ Frog shook his head as if to clear it and headed into this other dungeon¡¯s domain seeking further information and help.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary checked her fish almost on autopilot while the majority of her attention spread out as she balanced her domain. Lewis Carroll and Alice watched from the background. They tested and pushed at the new balance. Bluey¡¯s new surprise had made changes in the balance between her domain and Lewis¡¯ Mock Turtle setup necessary.

    ? ¡®K, I think we have it right now Lewis. That thread through your domain is secure. I can¡¯t see it being easily cut and it shouldn¡¯t be able to affect your domain. Check it out again and let me know. ?

    Mary checked the Boat Yard and checked it¡¯s limits, the subterranean living areas for the guards, the crocodile cave and still something was missing. The balance was wrong. She stretched her senses again and grinned as it came to her. ¡®Beep! I¡¯m an Ocean dungeon and this is for the most part a land dungeon.¡¯

    A flexing of muscles saw Mary¡¯s domain flow out to sea until the itch that she had been feeling vanished as her latest extension¡¯s balance flipped from land to sea. For the first time since the rebalancing Bluey had forced on her Mary felt comfortable.

    ? We¡¯ve checked Mother. Everything is as we want it and secure. Can I install those turrets on Parthia. I ¨C we feel we ¨C need to. I ¨C we¡¯re not sure why but¡ª ?

    ? Divine influence maybe, other me¡¯s beep the dwarves off, ¡®cause they¡¯re beep me off. You better prepare for a dwarven army, maybe more than one. Make sure to call for me when, if they come. An¡¯ prepare a fall back position. ?

    Lewis Carroll felt a chill. Alice¡¯s solid confidence in him calmed him. ? When will this occur Mother? And can you lend or give me a ¨C someone with the skill set to best use the Earth weapons you are introducing. ?

    ? Not sure when. Figure on more than six months and less than a year. I¡¯ll get a skill crystal set up to handle that. Frog¡¯s back, gotta go. ?

    * * *

    Mary ran a quick eye over everything, happy that no new problems had turned up. Her sister and her friends seemed to be enjoying themselves even if one of them did look a tad sulky. She watched as Frog approached. Not surprisingly he seemed rather wary.

    ¡°Hiya Frog, back already? You done?¡±

    Frog opened his mouth but nothing came out. He nodded and tried again, ¡°Yes Mary, all done, or at least with everything that pertains to Earth. Can you really help me with that link, with that other me and that feisty pixie?¡±

    ¡°Think so, fixed it from the other end several times. Probably scare that pixie of yours though as she¡¯ll have a good idea of just what I am.¡±

    Mary¡¯s eyes flicked looking over Frog¡¯s shoulder. She concentrated and her gate guard grinned and allowed the two dark suited crew cut figures to enter the yard.

    ¡°Say Frog, any idea why some government agents seem to be over fond of dark suits and really short hair?¡±

    Frog jerked but managed to restrain himself from looking over his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ve done nothing recently, why are they here?¡±

    Mary chuckled briefly. ¡°I¡¯m the one they¡¯re interested in not you. Mind, if they see you speakin¡¯ to me they might want to do some investigatin¡¯.¡± She gestured to one of her helpers and led Frog off again. This time they settled themselves in one of the yard¡¯s showrooms. Mary noted approvingly that the new displays she had ordered were now prominently displayed.

    ? Mycroft, have you slipped that proposal for a patrol boat to Commander Meadows yet? ?

    ? Yes Mother. ? Mycroft answered with what seemed like a long suffering sigh.

    ¡°You comfortable Frog, wanna start? From prior experience the ¨C intervention or whatever you want to call it takes five to ten minutes. The explanations an¡¯ reassurances take far longer.¡±

    Frog sighed and after hesitating for several minutes nodded. ¡°Please go ahead. I need to know.¡±

    ¡°¡¯K. Brace yourself.¡± And with that Mary made use of the fact that she was in her own dungeon this time, she gently intruded into Frogs soul link and strengthened it. Then she moved along it becoming vaguely aware of yet another world. She found Frog¡¯s other self to be far more dormant than the others she had freed, but that someone had already been prying, quite successfully at the barrier. She quickly unravelled the barrier allowing Frog to wake and to meet Frog. She left them to it and turned her attention to the pixie.

    Strelitzia had been examining the arena with her partner¡¯s senses when she detected the intruder. The invading dungeon was terrifyingly strong. ¡®Is this going to be the end of us? Gods it¡¯s SO unfair.¡¯

    ? ¡®Lo little one. Do you need any help? This is a truly unpleasant world I¡¯m surprised it still has pixies. ?

    Strelitzia shuddered and dared to hope. ? There aren¡¯t many of us left. Many creatures only exist in the various arena monster reserves. Why are you offering help? ?

    ? I¡¯m becoming a goddess, the more world¡¯s I and my consort have a foothold in the better. So anything I can help you with? ?

 Chapter 87

    Mary returned to her domain and spent some time enjoying herself as a dolphin with one of the resident pods.

    Then somehow she knew it was time. She released her avatar and returned to the south. The sun was climbing in the sky. Tyler and his girls were steadily forging northwards with brief pauses as they chased a particularly tasty morsel or other.

    In the Drow city the inhabitants were for the most part heading for bed. Mary crafted a sandy seashore and sat on a hastily conjured boulder to await her followers.

    As soon as Laasa, Nightshade and Nightwind were present she explained about her Mock Turtle portal dungeon and its advantages and disadvantages. She suggested they meet Tyler and his girls and find a suitable location together.

    ¡°But first I want you to take that annoying rock grub and dump him as near as possible to where you found him being careful to avoid the dwarves who I¡¯m sure will be present to ambush you.¡±

    Mary grinned, ¡°If you get a chance then by all means cull the greedy rock bugs.¡±

    Mary eyed her priestess. ¡°Laasa, can you suggest a location for a shrine or small temple in the city. The Spider Queen is happy to share her temple but she can shut me out and I can¡¯t return the favour. So I need somewhere of my own.¡±

    Laasa froze momentarily, ¡°I think so, we¡¯ll check when we wake.¡±

    ¡°Good, enjoy the rest of your day.¡± And the shoreline faded out leaving her three followers sleeping normally.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    Creevar cursed in exasperation. Things were proceeding faster than any of them had expected in their worst nightmares. Instead of a stately process taking several centuries those two overachievers had crammed what he had expected to take a century or so into mere months.

    And now, well Mirabelarque was sure to call another of xyrs interminable boring do nothing meetings over this complaint from that irritating boot licker Rockheart Forgefire.

    Creevar stroked his rat-tail moustache as he tried to see his way. Things were careering downhill on Tarifax. Ambuila was sinking slowly. While here on Parthia the Frost King was sulking in the North and doing nothing. He wasn¡¯t even turning up to half of Mirabelarque¡¯s meetings and informal get togethers. Not that he could blame him for avoiding those futile hours of excruciating boredom. Ice Heart was flailing around in the South and failing to do anything and poor Blackbeard was hiding himself away and licking his wounds.

    He needed more of those rat men Blue Lagoon produced, but he couldn¡¯t just go to her or Ocidon. They were the opposition and thanks to how the New Gods had been acting they weren¡¯t the loyal opposition like he suspected the greater gods had intended.

    Creevar snapped his fingers and then he downed the shot of vodka that had appeared in his hand. He tossed the empty glass away and it vanished before it reached the mist covered floor. He snapped his fingers again.

    ? Don¡¯t mind me darling. Teeheehee. I need to talk with you sweety. Teeheehee. I have a problem, well several, as do you. Teeheehee. And I suspect you are the most ah, flexible of our faction, or at least the one who sees we have to do something if we want to survive. Teeheehee. ?

    Creevar downed his vodka and threw back the hood on his grey cloak as he watched Azurea sway into his room. ¡®She¡¯s getting worse, that stupid titter is a dead giveaway¡ª by the greater gods she is really scared! Desperate!¡¯

    ? Be welcome Azurea dear sister. What can I do for you today? ?

    Azurea seemed to slump. She squared her shoulders. ? I have need of your adventurers, your Killers. I need to summon a twiceborn and that twiceborn will need an escort. ?

    ¡®No titter?¡¯ ? Why do you need Creevar¡¯s Killers, don¡¯t you think they¡¯re overpowered for an escort quest. What about one of your groups? ?

    Azurea looked haggard. ? Teeheehee. Oh dear, I need to try mend fences. I think I have found a way to salvage Tarifax but Mirabelarque will never agree to it. Teeheehee. Oh dear I hate this titter, Teeheehee. I think you are the only one of us that might agree with me on this. ?

    Creevar couldn¡¯t remember ever having seen Azurea this desperate. ? Why so desperate dear. We still have time. ?

    ? Far less than you think. I¡¯ve combed the minds of my new dungeons and some of those Earthlings have knowledge these worlds of ours don¡¯t. Teeheehee. Oh dear. Tarifax has one century or two, if we¡¯re very lucky three before it becomes another Diavlo. Teeheehee, I personally think it won¡¯t last two centuries. ?

    Creevar jerked upright. ? Why me. And what if I don¡¯t believe you? ?

    Azurea ran her fingers through her blue mane. ? Ask Mary Silvestre brother dear. I know you¡¯ve had dealings with her. Don¡¯t worry I won¡¯t give you away. Teeheehee. We need every edge and claw hold we can get. ?

    Creevar was still glaring into nothing well after Azurea had left. Then he shook himself and tossed off another slug of vodka. He shuddered. He couldn¡¯t stop thinking ¡°less than two hundred years¡± over and over.

    ¡®Well time to get on with it.¡¯

    * * *

    Creevar watched the dreamscape he had just created. The campfire burned with the occasional crack and the roast turning over the fire dropped splatters of fat that burned and spat. The big beer cask rested under a spreading elm.

    Then they started arriving, Zashaan was the first. She looked round warily then grinned and went to draw a flagon of the dark ale. She was sitting on a log watching the fire when Sreecator and Warminor arrived almost simultaneously. Warminor glanced round and made a beeline to the ale barrel. Sreecator uttered a short but heartfelt prayer before joining Warminor in drawing a flagon of ale. They joined Zashaan sitting round the fire.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Avor and Essa arrived next. They looked around with wide disbelieving eyes and clutched each other for comfort and reassurance.

    ¡°Welcome Avor, Essa to Creevar¡¯s world. Don¡¯t be frightened, the fact that you are here shows you are accepted and treasured,¡± said Sreecator the priest.

    Avor and Essa still holding hands made their way hesitantly to the fire. They sat nervously.

    Horaxanna arrived next. She saw the tankards in the hands of her friends, looked round and hurried to the ale cask. She drowned one flagon, smiled and filled it again before making her way to the fire. ¡°Oh nice, welcome you two. Seems you are now truly one of us.¡±

    Avor and Essa looked at her, ¡°Err, what do you mean...¡± said Avor, ¡°...truly one us?¡± concluded Essa.

    Horaxanna smiled and took another gulp of her ale. ¡°Just that. One of us.¡± And she gestured at everyone present around the fire.

    Finally Harrassan appeared. ¡°Huh, last again,¡± he grumbled to himself as he headed to get a flagon of ale before returning to the fire.

    Once all the members of Creevar¡¯s Killers were present plus their auxiliaries Creevar strode out of the shadows. His followers came to their feet but Creevar waved back to their seats. He sat on a comfortable looking chair that had rather incongruously appeared by the fire.

    ¡°I have a task for you. Unfortunately so does Azurea and she persuaded me to allow her to have your help. These tasks are important to me. So Harrassan, Sreecator I will place this in your hands.

    ¡°But first I have some news I must share with you Horaxanna. Please bear with me. Mary Silvestre Blue Lagoon¡¯s core is now a demi-goddess and consort of Ocidon. She clashed with that incompetent Blackbeard on the godsplane and defeated him twice in less than an hour. Once on her own and then with the help of the Spider Queen.¡±

    Creevar sighed and spread his hands. ¡°The Old Gods have won yet another clash and the Prophesy is favouring them. The Drow have been returned to the Spider Queen and the dungeon has become their, balancing goddess.¡±

    ¡°Balance, what balance?¡± spluttered Sreecator.

    ¡°Well yes,¡± agreed Creevar. ¡°But more importantly one of Rockheart Forgefire priestesses lost a child to the drow and she went seeking Blackbeard and found Blue Lagoon. Insults were exchanged and the child¡¯s been kicked out to sink or swim on his own. Rockheart Forgefire has come round whining to the New Gods and I¡¯m afraid she might get the dwarves to go after Blue Lagoon.

    ¡°And if she weakens the citadels sufficiently the Drow will know and with Little Fish at the helm they will strike.¡±

    ¡°Little Fish? Who or what is Little Fish?¡± asked Horaxanna.

    ¡°That¡¯s what the Spider Queen calls Blue Lagoon. Horaxanna will you please try to moderate any reaction from, at the very least, the moderate holds of your people. I don¡¯t think we can afford to lose the dwarves as a power.¡±

    Horaxanna nodded solemnly and raised her tankard to her lips, on realizing it was empty she hurried to obtain a refill.

    Creevar smiled and waited until Horaxanna was once again seated.

    ¡°Get yourselves to one of my temples, get hold of a priest or paladin of Azurea and fetch him or her along. Perform the twiceborn ceremony. Escort Deepsix Twiceborn to wherever he needs to go and stand by to help Deepsix attain at least Azurea¡¯s minimum aims. Please survive I still have need of you, besides I like you, all of you.

    ¡°When you¡¯re done with Azurea¡¯s mission or if you get an opportunity before then, visit Blue Lagoon and see if you can arrange another meeting for me. But quieter this time Heh?¡±

    Creevar gestured to the roast, ¡°Enjoy!¡± then he vanished.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Strelitzia was being battered by conflicting ideas, thoughts. Her Frog and the other Frog were sharing experiences, they were merging, becoming one being in two bodies. The other Frog was getting stronger and unfortunately her Frog was getting slightly weaker. No they were both Frog and thus hers.

    But what was worse was this other dungeon that was watching. And she was amused, she was finding her, their travails and confusion amusing.

    The invader was exploring their domain, totally ignoring Rufus¡¯ spells. Just ignoring the slavery compulsions. Then another powerful dungeon appeared, summoned by the intruder. It too was frightening but far less powerful than the one that claimed she was becoming a goddess.

    Strelitzia watched appalled as the latest intruder moved to the edge of her domain and started his own claim and rolled it away from the arena as the other poured manna into the effort. That allowed Strelitzia to realize that the new intruder belonged, no was somehow bound to the goddess to be.

    ¡°How are you able to ignore Rufus¡¯s spell chains, and couldn¡¯t you ask before running roughshod over us both?¡± complained Strelitzia.

    ? But I did Strelitzia, I asked Frog, the original Frog that is and thanks to me Frog is Frog once again. As for the spell chains, they are remarkably crude an¡¯ weak. Lots of holes, here let me show you. ?

    Strelitzia reeled. The flood of knowledge, the different way of looking at magic, seeing details; it left her feeling weak. She felt Frog latch on to her new knowledge and way of looking at streams of energy, she happily shared with him glad to have her partner active and aware.

    ? Wow this is spectacular Mary. ?

    ? Figure you¡¯ll need it to kick Rufus¡¯ ass. Lookin¡¯ at his spell, I figure he¡¯s boosted you more than he suspects. Gettin¡¯ free should be a cinch. Remain¡¯ alive afterward, that will be more difficult. Still figure you¡¯ll have to move outa town. ?

    ¡°Move our domain? How? We¡¯re established.¡±

    ? Strelitzia use the new way of lookin¡¯ reel in the threads of your domain carefully. Beware of the snags and tangles. Straighten those out first then get something to carry your core. Your main problem is gonna be the poisonous atmosphere. You know where to find me Frog, then again suspect Mock Turtle¡¯s gonna show up on this world¡¯s dungeon exchange shortly. If you need help, ask. ?

    * * *

    Mary snapped her attention back to Earth and sighed in relief. ¡®I want seeds or seedlings of those liftwood trees. Lots of uses for anti-gravity wood, both here and on Parthia.¡¯

    Mary and the leopard girls returned home before the party had fully ended. She left Kent Clarkson and Moriarty looking after it.

    ? Mary, have you been keeping an eye on the dungeon exchange channel? ? Jerica giggled, ? Sorry I forget, you haven¡¯t have you? Aunty Trish has to do it for you on Parthia. Guess that¡¯s one of my jobs here on Earth. ?

    ? Erm, well, please Jerica. Pretty please all those messages drive me nuts. What¡¯s happenin¡¯ let me look. ?

    Mary scanned the blog. Winter Wolf was asking for help, apparently the local authorities had lost patience and hope and were preparing a major assault.

    ¡®Hm, Linny the former drug addict. She¡¯s not likely to spill the beans on me now she¡¯s no longer human. Anyway she already knows more ¡®bout me than I wanted her to. The longer she¡¯s a thorn in the feds side the less likely they are to connect me to dungeons. Well for another year or so an¡¯ hopefully it¡¯ll be too late by then.¡¯

    Mary meandered into the kitchen at home grabbed a soda from the fridge and headed out to where she could hear the television playing. ¡°Hi mama, hows tricks.¡±

    ¡®Lessee, Linny Thomas and MacLeod (Redcap), Redcap? Maybe those wolverines some wolverine beastfolk dumped on me, suspect the result was not quite what the poor things expected but they should be fit for purpose now.¡¯

    ? Hey Jerika, what do you think. Give Winter Wolf templates for some light weapons, makin¡¯ sure no serial numbers or other identifiers are included and wolverine ¡¯folk. Also Infantry skillsets. ?

    ? Are you sure, even with that I doubt she¡¯ll survive. ?

    ? Suspect she means to relocate. Middle of the state capital seems a daft place to set up in the first place. Anyway if she¡¯s too dumb to survive tough! Not plannin¡¯ to give her anythin¡¯ that can be traced back to us. ?

    ? What about the Wolverine ¡¯folk? ?

    ? Too aggressive for proper discipline. Have no intention of ever usin¡¯ them. ?

 Chapter 88

    Tyler surged out of the frozen ocean and spotted the Drow waiting at the top of the small scree that lined the low cliff at the edge of the rocky beach. He observed them for a moment then he sensed Madison come ashore some meters to the north.

    Madison changed and dressed hurriedly in the cold wind. She eyed the Drow and sensed a resonance, she grinned and moved towards their welcoming committee. ¡°You must be Mother¡¯s champion and you her priestess. I¡¯m Madison and I¡¯m pleased to meet you. Are you here to help us locate a site for one of the Mock Turtle dungeon exits?¡±

    The two priestesses exchanged greetings as Tyler assumed his human form. Then, after Ava had also come ashore and changed the two groups exchanged cautious introductions. The scowl of irritation and flash of homicidal fury that Tyler failed to hide at the mention of the dwarves brought wide grins to the faces of the drow and did much to ease relations between the two groups.

    With scouts deployed the combined patrol moved cautiously through the evening¡¯s dusk. The drow showed the three locations they favoured to Tyler. The all conferred and ended up rejecting one out of hand. Madison finally shrugged. ¡°This location is for your benefit more than ours. Neither is too far from the sea and unlike Blue Lagoon Mock Turtle does not need his domain to be mostly sea. Pick your favourite location Laasa.¡±

    ¡°The caves,¡± suggested Laasa.

    ¡°The caves,¡± agreed Nightwind.

    So they returned to the caves in the low cliffs that sat about a kilometre back from the icy southern sea. There were abundant signs to show that these caves had once been on the coast and regularly submerged. Madison took the marble and together with Nightwing and Laasa she penetrated to the furthest of the caves before invoking the marble.

    The marble glowed blue and then a portal shimmered into existence against the rear wall of the cave. Madison couldn¡¯t help relaxing as the domain of the Mock Turtle dungeon swept over her. It wasn¡¯t quite the same as Mother¡¯s but it was very close. Almost identical in fact.

    Then she laughed. ¡°Good evening Daniel, still sticking that overlong nose of yours into the lion¡¯s den?¡±

    Daniel drew himself up to his full forty-one centimetres height and sticking his maligned appendage in the air replied, ¡°Huh, Walruses!¡± Them he grinned bobbed a greeting to the two drow and tossed a ring to Nightwind. ¡°A little gift for your band from Mother. Sorry got to run, too bloody cold around here.¡±

    Nightwind checked the gift and found three mithril mail shirts and mithril reinforced mail shirts for the rest of his followers.

    * * * INTERLUDE 1 * * *

    ¡°Damn that girl!¡± shouted Cdr Simon Meadows. Lt Anna Partlow looked up from her laptop and raised an eyebrow in enquiry.

    Meadows very carefully put the sheaf of papers he was holding down on the desk they were sharing. ¡°Mary has just sent us a proposal for a patrol boat incorporating enchantments. Though slightly smaller than our current model it has more room and is faster as the magazine, most of the stores and much of the fuel are kept in her damned storage devices. She cites her Storm Dolphin as proof of concept for the stores and fuel.¡±

    ¡°So what are you going to do commander?¡±

    ¡°What can I do? I have to pass it along up the chain.¡±

    ¡°Still no news about how she and the Dolphin made it to Florida?¡±

    ¡°No! And Gallows has already ordered us to find out. Though I haven¡¯t any idea when she¡¯ll be back. Also he¡¯s pissed Mary was seen with her father and stepmother. I think he had ideas regarding her status as a minor.¡±

    ¡°Do you think the Captain has bothered to read any of our messages?¡±

    Cmdr Meadows just looked at her.

    Lt Partlow sighed in resignation. ¡°No of course not. Gallows never does accept anything that runs counter to his preconceptions.¡±

    = = O = =

    Tessa grinned hungrily as she stepped through the portal, she was home and it was time. She accepted the small usb unit that Mycroft had prepared. She checked the small folder of documents and slipped the tasteful earring into the hole in her right ear. She examined the reflection of the average looking brown haired woman in the mirror. It matched the photos in her new documents though the photos seemed determined to make the girl in the mirror look bad.

    She slipped into the car Kent had bought. It didn¡¯t take her long to reach the airport. Not long after she was in Honolulu. It didn¡¯t take her long to borrow a car from the long stay car park. She left it within half a mile of Pearl Harbour. She breathed deeply and wrinkled her nose in slight distaste at the very slight smell of burnt fur.

    Tessa smiled to herself at this proof that the other enchanted earring was working as advertised and any hair, piece of fur or flake of skin she shed was being completely incinerated before it could reach the floor.

    Then it was time, Tessa faded from sight and she carefully infiltrated the base.

    Some time later, mission completed Tessa was glad to see nobody had found her borrowed car, so she drove back to the airport. She left her borrowed car parked not far from where she had found it.

    Later, back on Maui she drove back to the dungeon and returned the documents, illusion earring and the usb device before stepping through the portal back to Florida.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    = = O = =

    Cmdr Meadows was relaxing at the end of the day when the secure phone rang. He sighed and answered. He stiffened. ¡°Yes Sir.¡± He checked his watch, ¡°Just two hours and¡ª about fifteen minutes ago Sir.¡±

    ¡°What! But? Yes Sir.¡± Then with a dazed look he replaced the receiver in its cradle. He stood and walked into the lounge where his team were relaxing.

    ¡°Attention!¡± He waited until silence descended on the room and his team turned to look at him. ¡°Captain Gallows was found dead in an apparent suicide half an hour ago. People in the outer office heard the shot and found him dead. It looks like he was being blackmailed. His computer contained open files that suggest he had been selling secrets.¡±

    Meadows looked round at his shocked looking team. ¡°We have been ordered not to touch our computers. A team of investigators will be with us shortly as we were working under the Captain.¡±

    * * *

    Sunday was hellish. They had a bunch of suspicious intelligence types crawling all over the place, asking stupid questions again and again in slightly different forms and two of them wanted to haul in Ms Silvestre for questioning. It took the word of two of their own who had infiltrated the barbeque in Florida to stop that particular line of stupidity.

    Meadows and Tod watched the clip that the two agents in Florida had provided. They were able to identify Mary and the leopard twins. Moriarty was there too as was a cat man they hadn¡¯t seen before. Then there was the shaven headed biker that kept dropping in and out. Also in plain sight were her father, stepmother and stepsister.

    When he got a chance Meadows dragged the rest of his team by ones and twos to watch the clip so that they would all have a chance of recognising the people at the barbeque.

    When finally the spooks left there was still no word of Mary boarding a flight. In fact there was a clip of her sailing out to sea in her powerboat and the damn thing shimmering and vanishing.

    * * *

    Monday morning they were all getting breakfast when they heard a car¡¯s horn out in the street, then Joanne¡¯s phone rang.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    A short while later in her room Mary shoved the pillows on her bed out of the way and settled down cross-legged leaning against the wall. She shifted her attention once again to the Dungeon Exchange chat feature.

    (Dungeon Exchange: EARTH)

    ¡®I wonder? Wonder what¡¯ll happen if I select ¡°Earth¡±. ¡¯K a drop down list with ¡°Parthia¡± an¡¯ ¡°Tarifax¡± with greyed out options for ¡°Fragatta¡±, ¡°Diavlo¡± an¡¯ ¡°Ambuila¡±. Intrestin¡¯ gotta let Jerica know. Anyway want Earth.¡¯

    Mary selected Earth. ¡®Now where is that message from Linny askin¡¯ for help?¡¯

    Mary quickly scanned down the list of entries. She was able to ascertain that there were fifty active messages on screen ¨C so to speak ¨C and that more messages could be displayed but that nothing was available that had been posted over twenty-four hours previously.

    She checked Bluey¡¯s help files. ¡®¡¯K then. Twenty-four hours is the limit, I¡¯ll just make sure Tod doesn¡¯t think of access this function for a day or so. Right then, Fragatta is an all but dead iceball while Diavlo is a totally lifeless furnace. Guess that means Ambuila is the other world. Oh well back to the chat.¡¯

    Winter Wolf: Can any of you help? The feds have lost patience and are planning a massive assault.

    Alligator Haven: Sorry girl, all I gots gators.

    Blackrock (PrD): You don¡¯t deserve to survive you vicious bitch. You¡¯ve killed everyone in that damn prison.

    Winter Wolf (cmp): What do you expect wimp? We¡¯re a dungeon.

    Blackrock (PrD): Well you¡¯ll soon be history you murderous scumbags.

    Drop Bear: Temper, temper Blackrock. Winter Wolf is showing us the wisdom of keeping our heads down on Earth.

    Mary scanned the last messages and grinned. ¡®Gonna make some waves, but waves are good an¡¯ this could be useful. Fun too. So...¡¯

    Blue Lagoon: Can put some weapons on exchange, and template for Wolverine ¡¯folk. Then can supply some modified infantry skillset templates. Bluey insists on payment so I suggest future favours.

    Winter Wolf: Can offer template for cocaine, heroine, meth, wolves or undead.

    Blue Lagoon: Not interested in drugs, only foresee problems down that road, got wolves and have zero and I mean zero affinity for undead.

    Winter Wolf (cmp): What sorts of weapons?

    Mary grinned to herself, a quick scan on the internet made her chuckle.

    Blue Lagoon: Lang may yer lum reek MacLeod. M16A4, M203 under barrel grenade launcher, FN P90 and M136 AT4.

    Alligator Haven: Hey I WANT some of that!

    Blackrock (PrD): How can you help the psycho bitch who¡¯s killing people right in the middle of my town.

    Winter Wolf: I don¡¯t know what you said but you¡¯ve silenced my companion. I know what an M16 is and can guess at the grenade launcher, both sound good, but what¡¯s the FN P90 and M136.

    Blue Lagoon: Nobody been nice to him before? The FN¡¯s a sub-machinegun and the M136 is a fire and discard anti-tank weapon.

    Aligator Haven: Oooo!

    Blackrock (PrD): How can you Blue Lagoon! Winter Wolf will just use what you give her to kill more people.

    Blue Lagoon: Sell not Give. And it¡¯s nothing to do with you unless you go dungeon.

    Winter Wolf: I¡¯ll take them, but only if you can supply some diggers.

    Drop Bear: Sorry girl, us Aussies are not for trading.

    Blue Lagoon: Your choice. Think about it, you¡¯re a dungeon, and you can access portals at your ranking. Then again the faerie realms, underhill sound to me like some kinda dungeon. MacLeod can probably help you there. I¡¯ll place my offerings on the Exchange and leave them there for fifteen minutes.

    * * *

    Mary grinned as she flushed the fatigue poisons out of her avatar. ? Hey Jerika, I think we¡¯ll need an explorer to send to that new world. Then gotta look at plankton an¡¯ air filtration. Sulfuric acid¡¯s no joke even well diluted. Honestly what kind of idiots are those New Gods. And what does that say about the intelligence an¡¯ wisdom of the Greater Gods who are backin¡¯ ¡¯em? ?

    ? Um, Mary, careful when you speak of the Greater Gods. They are¡ª ?

    ? Self centred Idiots? Yes I know. ?

    Jerica mentally bit her tongue and made a note to herself to warn her auntie Trish of this dangerous new development.

    ? An explorer, you mean an agent. Given the kind of world it is I suppose a male human¡¯s the best bet. ?

    ? Yeah! But it¡¯ll have to be a sea human. That should be close enough and I can create a few of those. ? Mary sighed, ? Monday. Time for school again. ?

    * * *

    Mary stopped her Jeep at the foot of the Meadows¡¯ drive. ¡®Funny, no sign of Joanne. Or for that matter of Tod.¡¯

    Mary sounded her Jeep¡¯s horn and waited for a minute before producing her phone and dialling Joanne¡¯s number.

    ¡°Hey Jo, where are you? You not coming to school today?¡±

 Chapter 89

    Trisha was startled when Jerica contacted her directly. She spent an instant examining the method Jerica had utilised and stored it away as useful.

    ? Aunty Trish, I need to warn you ¡¯bout something that came up recently with Mary. I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s mentioned it to you yet. Um, it¡¯s about the gods. ?

    ? Hello Jerica, this is neat, I like this way of communicating with you. ? Then the content of Jerica¡¯s initial statement sank in and Trisha felt a chill. ? The gods? What¡¯s she done now? ?

    ? Yes it works well doesn¡¯t it. With just a little change we can talk to Alice as well. ?

    ? Oh I see... But what did you want to say about the gods. ?

    ? Well auntie, you know Mary¡¯s moving into this other world, well what she discovered, well she told me that ¨C that the Greater Gods are Self centred Idiots ¡¯cause the New Gods are idiots and therefore by backing them the Greater Gods are showing that they lack intelligence and wisdom. ?

    Trisha felt breathless. ? Mary said that? ?

    ? Well she might have been speaking to herself, but I¡¯m sure she was talking to me and yes she did. I just shut up and didn¡¯t reply. I just hoped she¡¯d forget about it and decided to tell you as soon as possible to warn you. ?

    Silence ensued.

    ? Um, aunty Trish, are you still there? Is this something covered in the Prophesy? ?

    ? I don¡¯t know Jerica. I know Ocidon is all happy that the Prophesy is being fulfilled in his, our favour but you know our Mary. She just goes charging off in all directions when something catches her attention. ?

    ? Um, that¡¯s not fair auntie, Mary has plans and she does tend to mostly follow them. ?

    Trisha sighed, ? Yes I know. It¡¯s just... ?

    ? Auntie, Mary does know she gains something from a god she defeats, doesn¡¯t she. I figure she got Shadow Mages from Blackbeard when she helped Ocidon destroy his temples and kick him off the oceans and the drow link in the latest skirmish. ?

    ? I¡ªI don¡¯t know if she realizes that. Blackbeard didn¡¯t seem to have access to the shadow mages after all. She knows about the drow but... We have to talk... to merge ideas with her soon... ?

    = = O = =

    Madison grinned to herself as she fingered the marble Daniel had somehow managed to pass her without anyone noticing. ¡®Damn that Daniel, but he¡¯s still one of the sneakiest of the man-rats. Glad he¡¯s one of Steve¡¯s faction, I shudder to think what Victoria would be capable of with him in her train.¡¯ Madison looked round, the drow were busy admiring their new treasure, ¡®So now lets see what this is? Ah another talisman, I see Mother has managed to add the image of herself as a dolphin to it. Now what does this note say? That¡¯s nice of Mother but I¡¯ll hold onto the one she handed me with her own hands even if it isn¡¯t as pretty.¡¯

    Madison, still smiling from reading the note she had just stored safely, moved to Laasa¡¯s side.

    ¡°Here Laasa, this is for you. It¡¯s one of Mother¡¯s talismans, it allows the holder to communicate with Mother and it allows Mother to expand her or Lewis¡¯ domains through it.¡±

    * * *

    After nightfall and after collecting their package for the dwarves the combined force was making it¡¯s way north, slowly and carefully. Tyler was grumbling as he was packing the unconscious Xaar.

    Ava smiled sweetly at Tyler, ¡°well you wouldn¡¯t have to carry him if you hadn¡¯t knocked him out.¡±

    ¡°But my precious love, the ungrateful little tyke was irritatin¡¯ me, he just wouldn¡¯t stop whining. Nobody objected when I put him to sleep.¡±

    ¡°Quiet please, we are getting close now. And we all were glad you shut up the rock grub,¡± said Nightwind. ¡°Now we wait.¡±

    Tyler dropped his burden, none too gently, and joined everyone else in gazing into the dark. Not too much later Nightshade and his apprentice ghosted back. They smoothed a small section of dirt and scratched out a rough sketch map.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think we can put the rock grub back where we found him. The dwarves are out in force, they seem determined to ambush us.¡± Stated Nightshade once he concluded his sketch map.

    Madison grinned, ¡°But Mother told the rock beetle¡¯s goddess she¡¯d have him placed near where you caught him. Not where you found him. Does that help.¡±

    Laasa blinked and checked her memories. ¡°So she did.¡±

    Nightwind smiled slowly as he looked at the sketch map. ¡°So if we remove him,¡± he touched a mark representing a dwarf guard near the western end of the sketch map.

    ¡°We can drop the rock grub almost exactly where we finished playing with him. Where we actually captured him,¡± confirmed Nightshade.

    ¡°Will you wait for us, um, but not here. Sorry but your sneaking is not really up to our standards.¡±

    ¡°No problem Nightwind, we¡¯re all well aware of it. And Shadow, Mother¡¯s shadow mage is even beter at sneaking than you lot.¡±

    The drow all froze, staring at Tyler. ¡°Little Fish has a shadow mage? Truly?¡± asked Laasa half disbelieving.

    Tyler blinked surprised. Madison after a quick glance at Tyler took it on herself to answer. ¡°Yes Mother, err, Little Fish has shadow mages. I think she has three. I think she only has one on this world though.¡±

    Nightshade licked his lips, ¡°Can, can Mother unlock the shadow mage track?¡±

    Madison looked inwards as did Laasa as they sought enlightenment. ¡°Yes!¡± they said in unison.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°She can,¡± whispered Laasa in awe. ¡°That career track has been missing since the destruction of Nightshade Chaosheart by the New Gods.¡±

    Laasa shared a look with Madison. ¡°This is a secret to be known only to the followers of Little Fish.¡± Decided Laasa.

    The drow all nodded, Tyler, Ava and Madison looked at each other, then they nodded. Laasa checked on Xaar. ¡°Good, the rock grub sleeps still.¡±

    * * *

    Nightshade moved quietly smiling in the joy of surprising his enemies. The fingers of his left hand flickered as he ordered his apprentice to cover his left. Starblight eyes flicked from side to side as he cautiously followed Nightshade. His fingers flickered as he passed his master¡¯s instructions back to their support.

    Starblight watched as his master drew his second fighting knife, he was unable to prevent himself from feeling envy at the sight of those knives. Then there was the rock beetle. Starblight shook his head in bemusement, the idiot rock beetle was paying more attention to what was going on behind him than the surrounding countryside.

    Then Nightshade signed with his knife and flowed forward. After one last glance at the ground between him and the dwarf Starblight followed swiftly. It was over in a flash, their victim hadn¡¯t made much noise as he died. Nightshade looked back and gestured while Starblight kept watch.

    They left Xaar still unconscious next to the dead sentry and withdrew quietly.

    * * *

    Later while watching close on four tons of sea mammals taking to the sea and turning to swim south Nightshade grinned, ¡°Impressive, never thought the seas would be friendly. How did you like it Starblight? The kill?¡±

    Starblight blinked, ¡°It was ¨C satisfying.¡± He scratched the back of his head. ¡°It was different but satisfying.¡±

    ¡°Good! That proves you have it in you to follow our path,¡± decided Nightshade.

    * * *

    Later in the Sablemane Iceheart¡¯s throne room Laasa entered and stood with bowed head before the throne.

    The queen regarded the new priestess carefully. After a good ten minutes she spoke. ¡°What do you have for me priestess?¡±

    Laasa raised her head, ¡°There is a secret you must know. But it is a secret for the inner circle of my lady¡¯s followers.¡±

    The queen regarded Laasa quietly for another few minutes before looking towards the elderly high priestess of the Spider Queen. The high priestess bowed her head slightly and withdrew from the throne room. The other courtiers took this as a signal and did likewise.

    The queen¡¯s eyes narrowed in speculation when four of her guards jerked in surprise and did likewise leaving only the two that sported the dolphin badge.

    ¡°So cousin, what is this momentous secret you have for me?¡±

    ¡°My lady holds the shadow mage career track. Three shadow mages already serve her.¡±

    * * * INTERLUDES * * *

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C CREEVAR¡¯S KILLERS * * *

    When Harrassan entered the common room of the Maiden¡¯s Blush Inn in Vaidon, he found Avor and Essa already consuming their breakfast at their usual table. He nodded to Ficitia, one of the innkeeper¡¯s daughters and proceeded to join the twins as she gathered his breakfast.

    ¡°Why so solemn you two? Creevar was happy to see you, you don¡¯t have to be worried.¡±

    ¡°We got ¡®conditions met¡¯ message...¡± ¡°...when we woke, ¡¯pears we¡¯re fourteen today.¡±

    Harrassan grinned broadly, ¡°Congratulations. We¡¯ll celebrate later. So what have you chosen?¡±

    ¡°We haven¡¯t...¡± ¡°...yet. We can choose...¡± ¡°...between Scout, Facilitator, Merchant, Herder...¡± ¡°...we like Facilitator, it looks good...¡± ¡°...and is rare, but it lacks defence and...¡± ¡°...sneaking abilities.¡±

    ¡°Well you two must have racked up a fair amount of experience during the more than half year you have been helping us. You might be able to take two classes or a primary and secondary class.¡±

    Avor and Essa locked glances with each other and shifter their attention to their System interface.

    The other members of Creevar¡¯s killers arrived and settled down to breakfast. Harrassan¡¯s murmured, ¡°conditions met,¡± was met with grins and had them planning the coming of age celebration for their young friends.

    ¡°So,¡± asked Harrassan when he noticed that Avor and Essa were once again paying attention to their surroundings. ¡°What have you decided.¡±

    ¡°Facilitator and Scout...¡± ¡°...dual class level two.¡±

    Creevar¡¯s Killers banged on the table in approval and cheered loudly startling the other patrons present in the room. This fetched their waitress to discover what was going on. Explanations led to an impromptu party with several individuals sharing their own stories and reminiscing.

    * * *

    As they left the Maiden¡¯s Blush Harrassan glanced around the nearly deserted road, this quarter of the capital of the Empire of Maartaan only came alive late in the afternoon and was only truly busy at night.

    ¡°So where can we get our hands on a priestess or paladin of Azurea without going to her temple. I got the distinct impression that Creevar wanted this kept quiet. Don¡¯t you agree brother.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I believe you¡¯re right brother,¡± replied Sreecator.

    ¡°Um, there are usually one or two of them at the baths in the morning,¡± offered Essa, for once without Avor¡¯s help.

    ¡°Huh! Essa¡¯s right,¡± confirmed Horaxanna. ¡°Now I¡¯d better get myself to the Dwarven Embassies to see what I can find out.¡±

    Harrassan watched Horaxanna walk away, then he turned and led the remainder of his band towards the local baths.

    ¡°Essa, how come you answered without your brother¡¯s help, is it because you¡¯re an adult now and have a class?¡± asked Warminor.

    The twins looked at him wide eyed, ¡°No, it is because...¡± started Essa, ¡°...I don¡¯t go to the girl¡¯s baths with Essa...¡± added Avor, ¡°...just like I don¡¯t go to the boys with Avor,¡± concluded Essa.

    ¡°Hah!¡± huffed Warminor.

    ¡°It just wouldn¡¯t...¡± ¡°...be right,¡± they concluded.

    ¡°Too right!¡± agreed Zashaan.

    * * *

    Harrassan smiled as he turned into the square where the bath house was located and he saw a priestess and two acolytes in their traditional blue robes enter the baths. ¡°Good now we only have to wait for them to finish.¡±

    ¡°But that¡¯ll take hours!¡± exclaimed Essa.

    ¡°Surely you exaggerate?¡± said Harrassan.

    ¡°No. Unfortunately she isn¡¯t exaggerating. Have you ever waited for Horaxanna?¡± asked Zashaan.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary grinned to herself and pocketed her phone, she had promised to wait for ten minutes.

    ¡®Wonder what¡¯s the hold up? Oh well let me look see how many future favours I¡¯ve picked up.¡¯

    Mary concentrated on her dungeon interface feeling Jerica join her. Winter Wolf had taken the lot so four, firearms, anti-tank rocket, skillset and wolverines. Gator had taken the firearms, so one, as had Drop Bear. Silly of them the skillset was the most dangerous thing she had placed on offer and¡ª Mary giggled. ¡®Naughty, naughty, all that indignation and you went and nabbed the infantry skillset.¡¯

    ? So Blackrock owes us a future favour Mary. ?

    ? Yes, isn¡¯t that amusing Jerica. I¡¯ll get Mycroft dig up everythin¡¯ there is ¡®bout Fin, Mr. Finnegan Doolin of Bismark, North Dakota. ?

    ? But you could use the¡ª Oh right, why waste the future favour if we don¡¯t have to. ?

    Mary watched Jo hurrying from the house, she was followed by Art and Tod who headed for their car.

    Jo scrambled into the jeep and fastened her seat belt. ¡°Hello Mary, how did you get back from Florida?¡±

    Mary moved off swiftly after checking the road and followed the well worn route she followed most days.

    ¡°Maybe I¡¯ve got a teleportin¡¯ boat.¡± She gave Jo a look out of the corner of her eye, snorted with amusement at the look on her face and added, ¡°probably not. Don¡¯t think it¡¯s possible to have somethin¡¯ that can teleport itself.¡±

 Chapter 90

    Bruukar the alpha of the tall crags pack walked at the head of his battered pack as they followed the trail through the wood. Raakehel his mate followed three paces behind him keeping a wary eye on their remaining two children. The two boys trudged with a worrying lack of energy. Behind her came her sister with her mate and his sister. Jaavator was the only uncursed among them and he only remained because of his love of Bitseena. Jaavator trailed them by several meters as he led the group¡¯s two donkeys.

    The poor creatures could smell the monsters that were trekking ahead of them.

    That night Jaavator sat by the bonfire as he kept a desultory watch as he occasionally stirred the pot simmering over the fire. The two young cousins were sleeping the sleep of the exhausted. They didn¡¯t even wake to the clash of the chains that bound their family or the savage growls and snarls that the frustrated monsters were issuing under the light of the full moon.

    They followed the edge of the woods steering clear of the prosperous looking fields with their fortified villages and hamlets. Finally after waiting another full moon the scruffy band struck out across the fields and headed for the sea. Their target was mid sized port city perched at the mouth of a small river.

    They walked down a badly maintained road that was little more than a farm track. Luckily it was not much used so they didn¡¯t have to deal with many beasts of burden. When they got to the town¡¯s walls Bruukar advanced to talk with the two slovenly looking town guards manning the open gate.

    ¡°Watcha want.¡±

    ¡°We wish to visit the temple of Ocidon. It¡¯s been a long time.¡±

    ¡°Daan by da harbour. Toll¡¯s a bit a¡¯ed, kids that size s¡¯free. Asses two bits a¡¯ed.¡±

    Bruukar grumbled but passed over ten bits. The other guard produced a piece of string and tied off ten knots before returning it to his pocket. Bruukar led his band into the town his nose trying to close down in protest at the stench.

    Jaavator waved as he turned into one of the nicer inns they passed, where he waited by the door as his wife and her family made their way down to the harbour. Then he turned and stabled his beasts before locating the innkeeper. He was able to hire two rooms. Then he sat in the common room with a mug of ale and some surprisingly good bread. The cheese however was hard and not particularly tasty.

    Bruukar had no trouble finding the temple. After hesitating for a moment he squared his shoulders and headed into the temple trailed by his pack. He located a priest and approached him.

    ¡°Honoured sir, we would like to worship in the Consort¡¯s shrine.¡±

    The priest inspected them briefly, ¡°please follow me. It¡¯s not much but it¡¯s over here. You realize the Consort will hear you even if you pray in the main temple.¡±

    Bruukar bowed politely to the priest, ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure but that¡¯s good to know. But now that we¡¯re here we¡¯ll use her shrine. Where can we leave offerings?¡±

    The priest smiled, ¡°In the main temple. The Consort hasn¡¯t set up anything separate above the waves as yet. If you need a priest, anyone of us can help.¡± With that he left and left the pack to it¡¯s own devices.

    The Pack filed into the shrine and they all kneeled, even the children. They bowed their heads and Bruukar prayed for them.

    * * *

    Mary¡¯s attention was jerked to Ocidon¡¯s temple in Focaton. The prayer reached her driven with true desperation and the despairing hope of a close knit family. And it was being sent to her as Mother of Monsters.

    Her interest piqued Mary allowed her attention to slip into the godsrealm. The despairing desperate faith fed her and she couldn¡¯t resist. She manifested her attention in her shrine. The dolphin idol shimmered as she temporarily replaced it.

    She examined her worshipers. They were open to her and she knew them. They had an interesting challenge for her. She grinned to herself. She studied them minutely then she spoke to them.

    ? Bruukar I will accept you and yours. Fetch the missing one for though he doesn¡¯t need my help he is truly one of you and part of this. I believe I can help you and your pack. I can¡¯t make you normal but I can remove the bloodlust and rage, the madness. Will that suffice? ?

    Bruukar¡¯s pack looked to him and he looked at the ghostly dolphin that seemed to swimming over the altar. He tuned and looked at his pack, reading their desperate acceptance. He faced the altar again. ¡°Yes Mother of Monsters. Fix us and we are yours for life.¡±

    The pack murmured agreement.

    ? Good. Fetch Bitseena¡¯s man. I will need you all together for this. ?

    = = O = =

    In her office the temple¡¯s high priestess Zuultiira Featherwise jerked upright from where she had been relaxing in her favourite overstuffed couch. Was that¡ª no it wasn¡¯t lord Ocidon. The Consort was manifest in her temple. She straightened her robes and hurried to the main temple. She passed several of her priests and priestesses. They fell in behind her and followed her to the temple.

    The Inner temple was full, worshipers and priests were gazing at the shrine to the Consort. It appeared to be sealed by a wavering shining blue-green shield.

    Zuultiira noticed that some of the locals were filtering into her temple, the word of the presence must be spreading. Then she noticed two worried strangers arrive and run straight to the shrine where they passed through the shield as if it wasn¡¯t there. This seemed to encourage her most turbulent priest Gaifort Thunderfist who stepped forward and vanished into the shrine.

    = = O = =

    Mary watched as the missing piece of this small family arrived, she noted almost absently that one of the temple¡¯s priests had followed them. She reached out and the pack sank to the floor and slept.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Mary scanned their bodies, the actual dna fix needed was minor and easily sorted. The real problem were the links that chained them to something. Something that filled them with its unreasoning rage and homicidal fury during the time of the full moon. Then there were the links that allowed whatever it was to feed on their despair and guilt. It, whatever it was, seemed to feed on strong negative emotions.

    Mary gathered the offending links and carefully uprooted them from the pack¡¯s minds before using her DNA manipulation abilities to rebuild their physical brains while using her manna to soothe their minds.

    Then she spun to face the intruder that appeared almost instantly after she had freed the pack. The huge foaming bestial looking werewolf was charging her in the godsrealm. Mary pulled her favoured seascape up around her stopping the werewolf in his tracks. Then after flailing wildly for a second it changed with the sound of breaking bones and tearing muscles into a twisted sharklike being that just looked wrong.

    Mary danced around in her dolphin aspect but found it almost impossible to get a blow in. The wereshark minor god for its part was more successful and Mary was soon trailing blood.

    Then Mary felt her other self merge with her. Then she could feel Pete and Shirley, their friends and kids. And from Earth she was joined Terry and his friends.

    ¡®I figured it was time to take our next Avatar. I went size and poison. Shall we throw the dice and see how a giant modified Blue Ringed Octopus does me? She has all the mods I we gave Pete, Shirley and Terry plus size.¡¯ ¡®Yes!¡¯

    The wereshark didn¡¯t pause when the bleeding dolphin was replaced by a huge octopus that jetted mostly out of its way. Mary shuddered as the thing that was relentlessly attacking her severed about half of one her tentacle, swinging her out of her intended path. She made use of this accidental course change to get a couple of her tentacles around the body of the not shark.

    She gritted her beak as the thing managed to grab another of her tentacles but now she had the rest of tentacles wrapped the thing and she stated to bite searching for whatever passed for the thing¡¯s spine all the time pumping in poison.

    The ocean in the godsrealm was swirling with blood. Now the fight moved to the realm of thought. In this Mary found herself with a massive advantage. The thing operated on Hate, Rage, and other strong primal emotions and its thrusts just slipped through Mary¡¯s mind without engaging, not finding a home.

    Finally the minor god of the werewolves and weresharks started to fear for its life and changing its tactics. It lost its wild mindless fury and tried to think, it tried to flee but Mary wasn¡¯t having any of that. This had been the worst fight of her life. She had lost two tentacles and a half besides taking a few other wounds. She just squeezed harder and chewed away grimly.

    Finally her opponent stopped struggling and started pleading for mercy and promising eternal allegiance. Somehow Mary sensed she was being observed by many of the world¡¯s gods. And somehow she knew they were here to observe and most were willing her to show mercy. Gods on the whole did not like change.

    Mary shrugged their suggestions of mercy aside, she savoured her opponent¡¯s desperation as he finally came to an end and died. She felt a rush of power and her tentacles regenerated. Her wounds closed and she gathered all she had shed during the fight as she absorbed it again. She refused to leave anything of herself for any other being to use.

    She was bombarded with all the powers the dead god had manifested and with all he had held. Most she flat out didn¡¯t understand so she offered them to Ocidon and the Spider Queen. They also reject most of what was on offer so Mary dumped them into the vault where she had found the shadow mage career and abilities.

    All those she found at the end of the mad god¡¯s links she freed with a flick of her will leaving knowledge of this fight and its result in her wake. Then and only then did she turn her attention to her audience of Old Gods, New Gods and the greater number of the unaligned. She also sensed a remote presence that seemed mostly ignoring things. She sneered at him and proceeded to ignore him in disdain.

    The swirling orphaned god energy that was all that was left from her opponent swirled round her and she was absently absorbing the majority. The parts she was rejecting kept trying to rejoin the rest until she lost her patience and scattered it to the winds of the world.

    The gods slowly faded out, some managing to scavenge some of the rejected powers and energy. As they went they saluted the new minor goddess in their midst.

    * * * INTERLUDES * * *

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C CREEVAR¡¯S KILLERS * * *

    Harrassan nibbled on the meat skewer doubtfully. I seemed to taste alright and his brother had eaten his with gusto. However Avor and Essa had refused to select anything the street seller had been peddling and that was worrying him.

    They had been waiting for well over two hours now. Honestly what could those women find to do for more than two hours in a simple bathhouse?

    Finally Harrassan saw the trio emerge. He approached the priestess and bowed. ¡°Lady, I and my brother have been tasked by Creevar and his sister Azurea with an important task. May I ask for your help as this task requires the presence of a priest or priestess of Azurea. That or a Paladin.¡±

    ? Teeheehee, sorry Falreena but I truly need you to do this. Teeheehee. ?

    Falreena froze in shock, there was no imitating that irritating titter. She gazed at the burly looking man standing in front of her awaiting her reply. Given his company she took him for an adventurer. And considering the twins and the mention of Creevar she assumed that they were Creevar¡¯s Killers. Behind her she could hear her daughter and her best friend whispering and giggling.

    ¡°As my lady wishes, so be it. Can I fetch my daughter and her friend or do we have time to divert by my lady¡¯s temple to drop them off?¡±

    ¡°I regret that Creevar ordered me to avoid allowing anyone in your temple to know what our gods intend until after the ceremony has been performed.¡±

    Falreena heard the sudden silence behind her with a certain grim amusement. Thankfully she didn¡¯t sense any threat from the adventurers to her front. And anyway Creevar¡¯s Killers had a good reputation. ¡°Very well then, I suppose we should be going.¡±

    = = O = =

    Azurea looked down at the ceremony. She was being represented by Falreena, hardly one oh her more ambitious priestesses. And two very young acolytes, it would be a good experience for the girls.

    She returned her attention to Deepsix. ? Well Deepsix, Teeheehee, anyone can be reborn as a human. I can allow you to choose any dungeon creature which surprisingly enough includes sea humans, Teeheehee, and you can also be reborn as one the traditional dungeon companion species. Teeheehee. I would prefer you to choose human or sea human. ?

    Deepsix pulsed with nervousness. ? Will you allow me to be reborn as a Wisp after this life Azurea? ?

    Azurea smiled sadly. ? If I¡¯m still around. Yes dear. Teeheehee. ?

    ? Let it be human then my goddess. ?

    Then Deepsix opened his eyes and swung his legs from the special altar and stood a trifle unsteadily.

    ¡°Welcome to Parthia Deepsix Twiceborn,¡± Said Sreecator and Falreena as one.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary was sitting next to the saltwater pool in her mother¡¯s garden. Terry was relaxing and keeping her company as were a couple of the pixies she had rescued from Tarifax. They seemed much improved.

    Mary gathered her domain in her mind and acknowledged the scattered small gods and goddesses lurking around her island home and in the islands around. Like them she kept a low profile having no wish to attract the attention of one of the dominant gods of her world.

    Then, almost reluctantly she infiltrated her attention to Tarifax. She had to see if the mad god had infested that world too. She flexed her tentacles and looked round carefully. Knowing what to look for she found the mad god, a version of him at any rate, and as evil as the one on Parthia. And he was greatly weakened.

    Gathering herself Mary struck without warning. This time it was fast as she knew just where to strike. She didn¡¯t gain much, just some energy but she was able to release the mad god¡¯s victims before withdrawing back to Earth.

 Chapter 91

    Zuultiira Featherwise led the prayers of her priests and the faithful. The shield around the shrine of the consort pulsed and gained streaks of colours other than blue. Some a dark colour like dried blood but mostly blood red.

    After what seemed like an eternity the swirling lessened, as did the pulsing. The shield cleared until it was once again just blue. Then it seemed to explode and flashed out to saturate the temple. Zuultiira knew without knowing how she knew that the Consort had just attained the next stage of her being.

    The divine energy released by the ascension of the Consort to true godhood, albeit minor godhood changed her temple and blessed all those within. She knew they would all live long and healthy lives.

    A stunned looking Gaifort Thunderfist, now with far more white hair on his head than he had sported just minutes ago came staggering out of the shrine. He looked at all the people congregating in the temple. They all seemed to be looking straight at him. He straightened himself and gathered his wits.

    ¡®What!¡¯ Gaifort thought to himself. ¡®Got a great opportunity here, what am I going to say? I¡¯ve got to make an impression, just got to. Right lets get on with this.¡¯

    So Gaifort drew on his training, making sure to project his voice and sound compassionate, ticking of the appropriate doctrinal points he stated talking. He told the tale of the most recent deeds of the consort, of her compassion to the strangers who had asked for her help, her mastery over the flesh of the monsters, now monsters no more and dwelt lovingly on her epic fight with the Mad God of the weres and of his destruction.

    Two of the temple scribes who happened to be present and in possession of the tools of their trade scribbled madly as did master bard Dardadus of the Golden Voice.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY and FROG * * *

    Frog found himself astride his pride and joy in the Florida panhandle once again. He noted with bemusement that the Silvestre Boat Yard was busy and that the tired looking office building had been replaced with something more modern looking since his last visit. He pulled up by the security guy at the gate.

    ¡°I need to talk with Mary. Can you contact her or Jerica for me please before I enter her domain unannounced please.¡±

    The guard flicked an ear in amusement. ¡°You¡¯re a polite one. You may wait in the waiting room or under the tree across the road. One of us will have a reply for you soon.¡±

    Frog smiled and after checking the traffic crossed the road and settled down to wait under the tree. He didn¡¯t have to wait long, another of the uniformed wolf ¡¯folk guards came to collect him less than fifteen minutes after he had settled under the tree.

    ¡°Come along little dungeon to be, Jerica says Mother will see you. I suggest you park your bike near Mother¡¯s truck and then follow me.¡±

    Frog did so and followed his guide into the big boathouse, he noted that he was the focus of attention for several of the boatyard¡¯s workers, and that his guide was aware of the curious. The boathouse was empty and they proceeded across a floating walkway and into another large water filled cavern. Frog felt a bit bemused, as there was no way he could see that this huge room could fit in the boatyard he had just left. He followed his guide carefully on the bobbing walkway and stopped in shock as they passed the point where the cavern opened out and he saw the small warship that had been hidden from sight.

    Frog¡¯s guide stopped and looked back, he grinned. ¡°Our Stingray¡¯s small but she pack¡¯s a punch. Hey come on, you know dungeon¡¯s have defences right?¡±

    Frog got himself moving again and was soon at the end of the rickety walkway, and after traversing a few rooms and a couple of corridors he was ushered into a comfortable room where his guide introduced him to Jerica and Tessa. He accepted the offer of a cup of coffee.

    * * *

    Mary watched the five pixies she had rescued from Tarifax flit around and grinned at Silversword. ¡°Looks like we did it Sil, they all survived.¡±

    Silversword perched herself on a flowering bush in the aptly named flower cave and nodded. ¡°Yes, but I don¡¯t understand the two black haired girls, the other three are starting to venture out into the garden. Those two just want to explore your tunnels and rooms.¡±

    ¡°Well yes, they are dungeon pixies after all. Probably the first Earth has seen. They are rather disappointed poor things.¡±

    ¡°Well they were, but Duskwing found an entrance to Lewis¡¯ dungeon and he and Alice made them welcome. They are both thrilled with their dungeon,¡± giggled Silversword.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°Well I¡¯ll leave you to it Sil. I¡¯ve got to go and see what Frog wants.¡±

    * * *

    Mary stepped into the room followed by Lissa in her don¡¯t see me form. ¡°Mornin¡¯ Frog, what can I do for you? Will have to be makin¡¯ my way to school soon.¡±

    ¡°School? But?¡±

    ¡°Heh! You¡¯re on Maui now Frog, it¡¯s just after six now. Don¡¯t worry, travel by dungeon portal is instantaneous so you¡¯ll not loose any time.¡±

    Frog looked stunned and his mouth dropped open. It took him a few seconds to recover. ¡°Um, well, any chance of getting to see the sights after we talk?¡±

    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll even clone your bike if you want. I¡¯ll get someone to show you how to get in and out. Now what do you need.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve been communing with my other self and we, I have been making plans. But I need to learn things so that we can use them when it¡¯s time to strike. So I¡¯ve been thinking I will have to risk claiming a domain so I can absorb things so we can use them on Tarifax. And to have somewhere to retreat if things really go tits up.¡±

    Mary sat and looked at him. She raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Do you think I would have access to an avatar if, if I had to become a dungeon for real. And would you teach me how you can swan around outside your dungeon?¡±

    Mary snorted in amusement. ¡°If I¡¯m not mistaken other you is around level thirty. He¡¯ll drop some and you¡¯ll shoot up. Then if you take out the slavin¡¯ beep that should shove both of you up a bit. Yes you should have access to an avatar. I assume you want to remain you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but fitter and without the beer belly. Can you help me?¡±

    ¡°Sure, knowledge is easy. Careful with your core, I see it is comin¡¯ along nicely.¡± Mary concentrated and created a duplicate of the amulet she had created to yank her self back to her core in case of accidents. She smiled again as she saw Frog put his hand over his core. ¡°Yep, best be careful with your core. A more powerful dungeon can alter it and embed commands in it. I¡¯ll even teach you how so you¡¯ll be able to check I haven¡¯t done so.¡±

    Frog felt shaken to his core. ¡°Why haven¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t feel the need. Both of us want the same thing, at least for the immediate future an¡¯ you¡¯ll be more effective without controls. Suggest you obtain some land that resonates with your desires, doesn¡¯t matter whether you buy or just appropriate it. Then claim it. If you don¡¯t settle in for long you should be able to up stakes and move. Doesn¡¯t have to be much as I suspect you¡¯re into going deep rather than wide.¡±

    ¡°Wide? What do you mean by that? Come to think of it my dungeon senses are telling me that this dungeon isn¡¯t right somehow.¡±

    ¡°You an¡¯ the pixies,¡± laughed Mary. She pointed, ¡°My core is about eight kilometres thataway, more or less in the centre of my domain. An¡¯ it is surrounded with monsters. Sea serpents, sea wyverns, giant squid an¡¯ octopi, ¡¯lectric ¡¯cuda an¡¯ stingrays. The works.¡±

    Frog felt something flex instinctively and then recoil. But somehow he felt happier, more relaxed as if his inner senses recognised something they had been feverishly searching for. Then he realized Mary was studying him with slitted eyes.

    ¡°What? You¡¯re making me uneasy.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re putting out a call. You¡¯re seeking a companion. I fear you¡¯re further along the path to dungeonhood that I had thought. It is faint but it will get stronger and then you will be pestered by various candidates seekin¡¯ either fulfilment or a cushy lifestyle.¡±

    ¡°But won¡¯t a companion pretty much necessitate a dungeon?¡±

    ¡°No. There¡¯s Dave on Parthia with Fleur, a pixie and his other self Andy, a proto-dungeon in the UK with Maddy, an elf and wife. They seem to have determined to grow somewhat apart.¡±

    ¡°So we can become separate.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but not me. Me I merge fully every day for a bit. If you want to share experience and growth I¡¯d advise you too get yourself a pixie just like your other self. If you want to separate then pick the one that offers and feels right to you. Linny seems to be separating into two distinct personalities. They have very different companions.¡±

    Where am I going to find a pixie on Earth?¡±

    Mary grinned, ¡°Easy, come along Frog, maybe one of the girls in the flower cave is what you need.¡±

    * * *

    Mary left the house as usual grinning as she remembered Frog¡¯s stupefaction at meeting her pixies in the flower cave. Besides the five immigrants from Tarifax Silversword and some of her friends had been present. Elmsbark as one of the rare pixie males was drawing in the local girls.

    She slowed as she approached her jeep. Something felt wrong, she stopped and checked her domain, she found that Ginger was hurt and hiding under her jeep. Not hurt enough to not have caught and played with two frogs however. She could feel the third hiding near the fence with the Kato¡¯s. And where was Greg?

    She linked with Jeep, and saw that three idiots had jumped the fence from Greg¡¯s one has bloodstains on his shirt. One of then had hit Ginger then they became frogs. Naturally. Frogging was Jeeps favourite trick after all and he liked Ginger.

    ? Tessa keep guard, Lissa please go and see if you can find Greg. Three idiots came from his garden and one of them hurt Ginger before Jeep frogged them. Ginger seems to have avenged himself. ?

    Mary crouched down and managed to persuade Ginger to emerge from under her Jeep. She saw to absorbing the frogs and the streak of Ginger¡¯s blood on the hood of her Jeep. She carefully carried Ginger to Liz¡¯s house and entrusted the injured warrior to his devoted servant. She watched as Liz got into her car and headed to the vets.

    ? Mother. Greg is alive but he is unconscious and seems to have a broken arm. Damon¡¯s already left for the hospital. ?

    Mary headed back towards her front garden and called for an ambulance explaining she had worried when she didn¡¯t spot Greg as he was always working in his garden when she left for school. Then she phoned Joanne to tell her she was delayed and why. Finally she called the school and explained the circumstances as she arrived by the unconscious body of her neighbour.

 Chapter 92

    Tyler looked back at the shore but couldn¡¯t see any of the drow. He turned and headed north once again. First they had to finish helping Penguintopia out, then they could get down to the important stuff.

    They passed Saarpolis without incident, and without being noticed. One day later they moved closer to the shore and started looking for a likely location. Another fifty kilometres or so north they found some sea caves at the foot of a cliff.

    Further exploration revealed that there were three large interlinked partially submerged caves and one that seemed to contain the ruins of a small jetty with scraps of what may have once been a small rowing boat. All three walruses looked at the penguin that had been accompaying them.

    The penguin, unnerved jumped out of the water onto the ledge that contained the ruined jetty and shook itself dry. It seemed to realize that the walruses considered this place suitable so it regurgitated the crystal marble its mistress had entrusted it with and managed to invoke it.

    Duskbright flew through the new dungeon portal and quickly explored the caves and the long passage and semi-ruined stairs that headed up from the dock. At least he did so as far as he could as they were blocked by what looked like an extensive cave in.

    He grinned at Tyler and his ladies. ¡°Looks good, where are we and what¡¯s at the top of the stairs?¡±

    Madison slapped the surface of the water with her tail. ? We¡¯re about half way between Saarpolis and Viircamouth, closer to Viircamouth than Saarpolis I think. And we have no idea what is at the top of the bloody cliffs. ?

    Duskbright cast a wary eye in Madison¡¯s direction and flitted through the portal.

    Tyler felt Penguintopia¡¯s domain sweep over him and sighed in relief. Maybe now they could get on with their primary job. Then Duskbright was back, and with him, a veritable sea of penguins, ¡°Well thanks Madison, Ava, Tyler followed him, ¡°This looks to be perfect. Just hope no one discovers us too soon.¡±

    ? Right we¡¯ll be on our way then. You shouldn¡¯t have too much trouble. Rach does have a couple of useful templates now doesn¡¯t she? ? asked Tyler.

    ¡°Yes,¡± smiled Duskbright, ¡°and the ones mama and Trapper gave us as a bonding gift should work this far north.¡±

    Duskbright watched the Walruses leave and couldn¡¯t avoid feeling a certain degree of relief as the three powerful monsters left. However friendly they might be he couldn¡¯t shake the knowledge that they belonged to another dungeon. A capricious and unknowable dungeon.

    * * *

    The three companions hauled themselves onto the ice sheet and relaxed feeling quite at home on the ice. They relaxed and rested.

    * * * EARTH ¨C ALLIGATOR HAVEN * * *

    A state of the art flat screen TV safely ensconced in an airtight glass box was playing in a dank and decidedly rank damp cavern. A shiny black onyx seemed to be paying attention to the program as did a floating wisp. The two well armed gatormen seemed uninterested.

    * * *

    ¡°We¡¯re going to take a page from the Mythbusters. Let us introduce Mr Vincent Dalton and his assistant Mr John Azevedo to you. These hard working members of the New York maitenance department have been very vocal in demanding danger money for doing their jobs.¡±

    ¡°Damn right we need danger money. We also need guns. Parts of these sewers are crawling with gators.¡±

    ¡°Well we¡¯ll see won¡¯t we Tammy?¡±

    ¡°Certainly Harry, alligators in the sewers of New York is a well established urban myth.¡±

    ¡°Yes Tammy, we will be accompaining Mr Dalton and Mr Azevedo today.¡±

    ¡°Correct Harry, I¡¯m looking forward to see these mythical beasts,¡± Tammy smirked.

    ¡°Please lead the way Mr Dalton,¡± grinned Harry.

    * * *

    ? Hey Swampy, those creeps ain¡¯t cool. They got no right to poke fun at Vinny and Johnny like that. Not cool. ?

    ? Yeah boss, think it¡¯s time to let Speedy have some fun? ?

    ? Maybe. Lessee. ?

    * * *

    Vinny was getting peeved and when Johnny took a right to pass the mess that they hadn¡¯t got round to clearing yet he simply made sure of his mask before following. The cameraman and the two reporters gagged in disgust. Vinny and Johnnie smiled, being careful to keep their mouths closed as they breathed through the small nasal filters they had found on occasion in the sewers after they had chased off one of the gators.

    Despite everything Tammy and Harry kept their banter going whenever conditions improved enough that they wern¡¯t feeling sick. They grew ever more sarcastic and desparaging.

    Vinny saw the ripples in the murky water of the storm sewer they were following. He shouted a warning and hugged the wall as did Johnny. Harry with a sarcastic laugh moved right to the edge of the footpath. Tammy stood just behind his shoulder while their camaraman took a position near the edge so as to catch the scene. The two municipal workers cowering, hugging the wall while the two reporters fearlessly inspected the sludge in the channel.

    * * *

    ? Kay, thass enough. Sic ¡¯em Speedy. Teach those fancy pants assholes not to make fun of us discards. ?

    Swampy jiggled up and down with glee and beamed his wholhearted love and support for his partner.

    * * *

    Harry barely had time to see something come surging out of the viscous liquid that passsed for water before screaming in agony as something with lots of teeth clamped itself to his leg and pulled him off the walkway and under the surface.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Tammy screamed and shoved herself back against the damp wall of the sewer. Their camaraman kept filming on autopilot and caugth Vinny jumping into the stream wielding what looked like a cattleprod. Johnnie followed him with a large nasty looking knife.

    Finally when Vinny and Johnnie returned to the walkway dragging a badly injured Harry with them they discovered Tammy slumped unconsious against the wall and a camera lying on the floor of the walkway next to a large pool of blood.

    * * * EARTH ¨C WINTER WOLF * * *

    If Linny had teeth she would be showing them in a snarl. They had repulsed the police swat teams and the initial follow up by the National Guard thanks to her new monsters. Those wolverinemen were viscious and tenacious. They did tend to go berserk when cornered. MacLeod¡¯s suggestion of enhancing them with her madness affinity at that point had been inspired.

    She had gained so much energy it was unbelievable. She had raised her dungeon¡¯s ranking. Winter Wolf was now ranked Vetran and that little whiner Blackstone was crying big crocodile tears on the exchange. They were massing tanks out there now, but the stupid idiots had established their forward elements in the former prison yard. Their secure comms meant nothing when they were discussing their plans in her domain.

    ? Hey MacLeod, how is it going? Is that idea of Blue Lagoon¡¯s panning out. We don¡¯t have anything that can take out those big damn ugly tanks. ?

    ? It looks guid. Th¡¯ closest ay th¡¯ underhill realms is mair than half deid an¡¯ mostly thaur ur only monsters left behin¡¯. It IS gonnae tak¡¯ a lot ay energy. An¡¯ we will hae tae conquer it. ?

    ? Well I¡¯m listening to their plans and we have two days available. I think I¡¯ll see if Blue Lagoon has anything we can use against those tanks. Meanwhile we can pull out many of our guards and use them. Will you see to it MacLeod. ?

    ? Och aye lass. We hae lots ay energy. We micht e¡¯en be able tae hauld Winter Wolf if we convert it tae a true dungeon wi¡¯ techt passages an¡¯ caves. ?

    ? Oh, I intend to. But I just love the thought of us being the King and Queen of an unseelie realm. ?

    MacLeod grinned fiercely to himself at the thought. Revenge would be sweet, then he turned and headed back home.

    Linny watched as MacLeod stepped back into their dungeon through the portal they had established to the faerie realm they were planning to take over. She watched as he gathered up most of their defenders and led them through the portal. She felt her energy reserves drain away steadyly. The first rush as they claimed the realm was exauhsting and left her reserves lower than they had hoped but still at an acceptable level. Then the drain was occasionally reversed as their forces killed the former inhabitants. Her stocks of potential monsters grew, and some of the new possibilities were trully bizarre.

    After the first day she felt happier. There were still a few holdouts in their new realm but the drain of energy had ceased. So she called her most experienced wolverineman to her core room. When he arrived she started spending energy from the stocks she had set aside. Linny used her dungeon interface to enhance him with Ice and Darkness. Then she fed in some Death and finally a touch of Madness. She examined the now visibly taller and bulkier dungeon boss before her and added more Ice. Everything seemed to click this time. Her previous two experiments hadn¡¯t been a total waste.

    Things seemed to be going well, her Tourmaline core flickered with glee.

    ? I hereby name you Bruce. ?

    Bruce seemed to become shorter and stockier and the furr on his head thinned slightly as his face shifted to look like a extreemly bad tempered version of the actor Linny had been thinking about.

    * * * EARTH ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Alligator Haven: Hey Monster Mama those Gator folk are ace. Made my first kill on Earth today. Wrong guy but think t¡¯other will loose a leg. Got snakes that would work at mine? You notice we get more xp for killing here on Earth.

    Unamed #10 (PrD): Hey was that you in NY. Cool man. That was ace.

    Blackrock (PrD): Oh man did you have to? I know they were assholes but they were still human beings.

    Alligator Haven: Hey go peddle your bleeding heart fantasies elsewhere. Bet other you¡¯s been killing folk left right and centre to earn a name.

    Blackrock (PrD): What do you mean other me?

    Blue Lagoon (cmp): Monster Mama¡¯s busy, (giggle) and we have snakes and Mother can fix ¡¯em. And yes we¡¯ve noticed. Bluey has to allow for the authorities reaction to deaths when awardin¡¯ xp.

    Dinosaur Caves: You just have to have the right treasure. Something unique.

    Winter Wolf: Blue Lagoon I¡¯ve got some big fucking tanks out front. The missile launchers are great but can¡¯t seem to touch the big tanks.

    Blackrock (PrD): Good!

    Blue Lagoon: Abrams M1? Well yeah, they¡¯re tough. Got three possible man portable answers to them, Milan, TOW and Javelin, but all have drawbacks. Namely they have minimum ranges. They can¡¯t engage anything within seventy meters or so.

    Weasel-hame (PrD): WTF! What does a dungeon want with that kind of firepower?

    Blue Lagoon: Hey it¡¯s only small stuff. Nothin¡¯ major.

    Winter Wolf: In that case will you swap all three with appropriate skillsets for the template of an each-uisge?

    Blue Lagoon: Yes. They¡¯re on the exchange now.

    Winter Wolf: Thanks. And done.

    Blue Lagoon: Congrats on makin¡¯ Vetran Linny.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary knocked and strolled into Cass Merrow¡¯s office with a covered cat carrier. ¡°Hiya Cas, what do you think?¡± she asked as she placed a glass jar containing several miniature planks of a strange blue tinged wood apparently stuck against the lid. She turned the jar over and the slivers of wood floated up to the bottom of the jar.

    ¡°Anti-gravity wood. Good eh, I¡¯m gonna call it liftwood, think anyone will thank me for creating it? Sorry about the size but the trees will need a couple of years before they¡¯re big enough to be really useful.¡±

    ¡°What! That¡¯s impossible, you can¡¯t have, and it doesn¡¯t make sense for a tree to fly.¡± Cass picked up the jar and spent some time turning it and examining the contents. Then she carefully opened the jar and fished out one of the slivers of wood before sealing the jar again. She examined it minutely and confirmed that it did in fact float in the air.

    ¡°It just contains hydrogen or helium, right Mary.¡±

    ¡°Nope, you¡¯ll find the lift differs depending how great the surface area that faces down is.¡± Mary reached into her storage device and produced a small model. She showed Cass that it had four of the tiny planks mounted on the bottom face. All were vertical and when she placed it on the desk it stayed put. Then she used two small knobs to turn two of them flat and once again placed it on the desk. This time the model slowly rose into the air. Some more fiddling left the model hovering in mid air.

    Mary grinned happily. ¡°Ain¡¯t DNA manipulation an¡¯ genetic engineerin¡¯ great?¡±

    Cass closed her eyes and sighed. She replaced the plank she was holding back in the jar and looked flatly at Mary.

    ¡°Think I should write a paper? Not a new race of brainy octopi so got to be better? Right?¡±

    ¡°And how are you going to get anyone to repeat your experiment?¡± asked an exasperated Cass.

    Mary very theatrically widened her eyes, and then she grinned again. ¡°Not gonna happen Cass. The procedure is mine an¡¯ I¡¯m keepin¡¯ it confidential. Oh, you can keep those, guess you will want to show ¡¯em round. Goin¡¯ to show ¡¯em to the military next so figure havin¡¯ some loose in academia would be a good insurance.¡±

    Cass hid her face in her hands. ¡°Oh god. Why me?¡±

    ¡°¡¯Cause we both like octopi? Oh and here you probably could use these.¡± Then Mary set three of her enchanted rings on the table, ¡°DNA scanner, Manipulator and the most dangerous one, the one that allows the change to be diffused through the body.¡±

    Cass glared, ¡°You!¡± she pointed at the chair in front of her desk. ¡°Sit!¡±

    Mary smirked and did so after depositing the pet carrier next to her chair.

    ¡°And what have you got there?¡±

    ¡°Birthday present. Goin¡¯ to the party after this.¡±

    Cass resumed glaring. ¡°What. Have. You. Got. There?¡±

    ¡°Two sorta ponies. They¡¯re for a little girl who¡¯s five today.¡± Mary picked up the pet carrier and placed it on her knees. Then she raised the cloth covering the carrier.

    Cass relaxed when she saw the contents. The little pony toys were bigger than all the others she had seen for sale before... Then she realized that they were moving and regarding her with curiosity. The pink one spoke! It had a high clear little girl¡¯s voice. ¡°Hewo lady,¡± it said.

 Chapter 93

    Tomcat handed Clarrina, his latest wife down from their hired carriage in front of the shipbuilder¡¯s guild. The reception room was busy and Tomcat prepared to wait. He looked down at Clarrina with a smile. ¡°Thank you for co¡ª¡±

    ¡°AARGH! It¡¯s you, you...¡± Zoreena the receptionist stood up behind her desk, grabbed and inkpot and hurled it in rage. It connected with Tomcat¡¯s head and dropped him to the floor.

    Zoreena froze, arm outstretched. Clarrina glanced down at her groaning husband and back at the shocked receptionist. She noted in passing that the woman was pregnant. Clarrina sighed.

    Tomcat shook his ink stained head and got to his feet. His tail and fur were all bushed out making him look bigger than he was. He looked embarrassed. ¡°Um, well, I, Well I¡¯m sorry Zoreena. Will you allow me to make amends?¡±

    Zoreena glared at him, thin lipped. ¡°I suppose you¡¯re going to say you thought catmen couldn¡¯t have babies with humans.¡±

    ¡°Um, well, you see... No I had just learned that I could... But you are so beautiful and graceful that ... um, I forgot. Sorry.¡±

    ¡°And who is the lady with you?¡±

    ¡°Err...¡±

    Clarrina grinned, ¡°I¡¯m his latest wife. Thanks to his ways with the ladies there are four of us so far. Do you want to make it five? I suspect the high priestess of the Consort would be happy to officiate.¡±

    ¡°FIVE? ... There are five of us?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Clarrina shrugged. ¡°One young lady refused marriage and after this he¡¯s off to check on a pair of sisters in Dramatine.¡±

    ¡°Why now?¡±

    ¡°Well my doves, I¡¯ve been busy on Mother¡¯s behalf. Now ... Err.¡± Tomcat broke off when Clarrina elbowed him in the ribs.

    ¡°What he means is ¡®Mother¡¯ told him it was time to put his house in order. He¡¯s a male with no concept for the passage of time after all.¡±

    Tomcat gave a dramatic sigh and regarded the two women with sad cat eyes.

    * * *

    One week later Clarrina and Zoreena were leaning against the rail of the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory¡¯s quarterdeck as they sailed west.

    ¡°You could have warned me Clarrina, I felt so silly being married by that little imp of an elf.¡±

    ¡°Me too. But she ranks third in Ocidon¡¯s temple and first in the Consort¡¯s. THAT is all we need to say. No need to mention her age when we boast about our weddings.¡±

    * * *

    A few days later the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory had traversed the Nordland Straights and entered the Bezos Sea and they were heading south. Six days after leaving Garonmouth they were hovering outside the once busy harbour of the free city of Dramatine. A town of whitewashed flat-roofed houses with a very North African feel about it that was currently under a spreading pall of smoke.

    Tomcat and the lieutenant in charge of the marines were studying the town with their binoculars. The passengers were crowded on deck as they tried to figure out what was going on. Finally Tomcat lowered his binoculars and stalked to the side of his new first mate. Clarrina edged closer burning with curiosity.

    ¡°Looks like a mess Will. I could see the locals fighting with and against orcs, dwarves and drow. Break out the Balancer¡¯s battle flags.¡±

    ¡°You sure cap? Might be risky, we have passengers that might prefer to see the blood banner of the orcs.¡±

    Lieutenant Lake huffed in irritation. ¡°Mother is the Balancer. We¡¯re aligned with the dark ones whatever anyone thinks.¡± The big Jaguar ¡¯folk scratched an ear, nodded to himself and headed off shouting for his marines to get ready.

    Will looked up at the dolphin flag flying at the rear. ¡°What about that cap?¡±

    ¡°Leave it. Raise the Balancer¡¯s battle flags to the mastheads. Prepare the lasers and prepare to clear for action. Our allies look to need our help.¡± Tomcat stopped looking bewildered. Then he shrugged. ¡°Let us do Mother¡¯s bidding. She wishes this. As for the passengers...¡±

    Will looked blank for a moment, then he shook himself and then he too started shouting orders.

    = = O = =

    Captain Greymane was cursing luridly. They were being forced back towards the waterfront by an unholy alliance of locals, dwarves and orcs. The remnants of the Emir¡¯s guard were still fighting with them. More, he suspected, out of desperation than out of loyalty to the Emir.

    Then two blinding bars of burning ¨C destructive ¨C light smashed into the command group of dwarves and rebel humans. Seconds later it happened again.

    Greymane watched with grim pleasure as the filthy followers of Emir¡¯s uncle fled. Without their presence the orcs fell on their hereditary enemies, the dwarves. He grinned as dwarves fought orcs. Then he laughed when the beams of light burned through the melee.

    Greymane spared a glance out into the bay and saw a gaily-painted two masted ship flying two massive flags with the glyph of the Spider Queen in the hoist and a picture of Little Fish in the field. Then two more bars of that light lashed out but their target seemed to be somewhere near the palace.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    = = O = =

    Raalouf the bloodyhanded, Emir of Dramatine watched with satisfaction as his executioner removed his uncle¡¯s head from his shoulders. It had been a close thing but the viper had been drawn into the open and he was now dead. And soon his family would join him.

    Raalouf tossed a purse to his faithful executioner and left the somewhat dusty torture chamber under his palace. He headed for his throne room as his guards fell in around him. Now he had a more ¨C troublesome. Yes a more troublesome problem on his hands. He owed his continued rule to the drow of all people. He also had to mollify the dwarves somehow. Their mines were important.

    Raalouf looked out of the window and noted with grim satisfaction that the heads of his former junior wife, spymaster and first minister were already decorating the main gate.

    Raalouf paused briefly in the guardroom behind his throne. He noted with approval that the archers were in place by the arrow slits. He turned his attention to the man he was considering for the position of spymaster. ¡°Well what can you tell me?¡±

    ¡°My Emir, not much as yet. The drow told me that the brigantine Alessandrina¡¯s Glory is under the command of Bishop Tomcat. One of the four bishops of their new goddess Little Fish, who is also known as Blackbeard¡¯s Bane and Mother of Monsters. She is the new Balancer god of their people. Nobody has any idea as to what spell or weapon they were using. The brig is an auxiliary in the navy of Blue Lagoon, the new power based in the Great Ocean. Their marines came ashore and rounded up a family of petty traders. The ones they collected are now on board the ship. About half the passengers disembarked, some prematurely. We offered them hospitality.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C FROG * * *

    Frog rode away from the Silvestre Boat Yard with Angel clinging to his shoulder her yellow hair streaming in the wind. In the back of his mind he could feel her joy in all the sights that they were passing.

    Burgmansia or Angel as she liked to be called couldn¡¯t believe this world. The machines were so much more prevalent than those on her former homeworld of Tarifax. She had been so sick there. They all had but now they were well thanks to these Earth dungeons. And she knew, she just knew she and Frog were going to help do something about it. Praise be to Mary Silvestre, Blue Lagoon and Mother of Monsters.

    Now she had her Frog and he was sweet and kind and they were going ... Oh, that orchard was beautiful. This world was so green! A bit too orderly but it was beautiful. And they were going so fast! Why was that blue and white car with the flashing lights following them and why was her Frog stopping?

    * * *

    Frog parked his hog in front of the estate agent he had researched in Houma. He hoped this would work. He could feel Angel sleeping in the little house Mary had conjured up and that was currently disguised as one of his saddlebags. The other was now a bag of holding so he wasn¡¯t short of storage.

    He entered the air-conditioned bliss of the estate agent and looked round. A well-dressed middle-aged lady smiled at him and rose. She offered her hand and he shook it with a smile.

    ¡®Yes, It is Doris Mayhew. I¡¯m in luck, and I think this will work. Just have to seem apologetic but that will be easy.¡¯

    ¡°Good afternoon sir, I¡¯m Mrs Doris Mayhew, please call me Doris. How may I help you?¡±

    Frog smiled and hesitated slightly. ¡°Hi Doris. Pleased to meet you. Please call me Frog. My real name¡¯s a right mouthful. Um, well this is a bit strange but I was hoping you would help me win a bet. I need to own a small parcel of land somewhere to the south of Houma. It needs to be at least a mile from any town and not in a village. It has to be at least large enough to park a mobile home and be accessed by either road or water. I don¡¯t mind what it¡¯s like as I have no intention of parking a mobile home on it or building a house on it.¡±

    Frog shrugged and spread his hands. ¡°I don¡¯t want to spend too much for the place, that way I¡¯ll hopefully make a profit thanks to the bet. Do you think you could help me?¡±

    Doris rubbed her chin thoughtfully. This stout shaven headed biker amused her, or rather his bet related problem amused her. Maybe she could offload something or other to their mutual profit.

    Doris gestured to the seat by her desk, ¡°Please take a seat, um, Frog. I might be able to help you. Just let me see what I have on our books.¡±

    * * *

    A few days later Frog and Angel were looking a barren and partially submerged piece of land that had been contaminated by the dumping of waste courtesy of a now defunct and no longer extant company.

    Frog strode to the centre of his parcel with Angel riding on his shoulder as had become her habit. Frog set the folding chair he had been carrying down and sat. Then he started claiming his land. Frog was feeling tired when he finished and he was covered in sweat. He realized that both he and Angel were feeling queasy. He focused on his domain, and just knew he had to get the poison out of his land.

    He turned his head and met Angel¡¯s bright green eyes. They agreed and merged. Then they struggled with the poisons. They realized that they knew what they needed to do for Mary had already solved much the same problem when she had fixed Angel and the other pixies.

    Angel pricked her finger and let several drops of blood fall to the ground.

    Frog woke in an earthen cave with Angel cradled in his lap. His core had grown massively. The Tiger Eye pulsed with light in time with his heartbeat.

    ? conditions met ¨C for cleansing your domain you may claim nature based monsters ¨C do you wish to have Dryads as your tertiary monster type ¨C accept yes / no ?

    Frog¡¯s brown eyes met Angel¡¯s green ones. ? YES ? they said in unison.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    It was late when Mary walked up to the Meadows house. She wasn¡¯t surprised when Art showed up behind her on the path, or that the front door opened before she got to it to reveal Tod.

    ¡°Good evening Mary, what can we do for you today?¡±

    ¡°Got something to show you. ¡¯Nother headache for Simon or maybe not.¡±

    ¡°Anything to do with those ... ponies?¡±

    Mary giggled, ¡°Nah. Did you hear Annie squeal when she saw them?¡±

    Tod just shook his head. "The surveillance tech is never going to forgive you for that. He was near deafened by his laser mike.¡±

    ¡°Well he shouldn¡¯t have been listening in on a little girl¡¯s birthday party. High pitched squeals are a given. May I come in?¡±

    Tod stood back and headed for their lounge with a ¡°follow me.¡±

    Mary grinned and handed commander Meadows a sealed jar. While he was examining the handful of blueish miniature planks contained therein she produced a small model of an airship and demonstrated its ability to float. ¡°Liftwood,¡± she explained.

    ¡°What! How!¡± exclaimed Meadows.

    ¡°I was trying for something else but ended up with this. Anti-gravity wood. Good eh, I¡¯m callin¡¯ it liftwood, think anyone will thank me for creating it? Sorry about the size but the trees will need a couple of years before they¡¯re big enough to be really useful.¡±

    Mary found herself the focus of the entire protective detail as they tried to grapple with the possibilities. ¡°How much of this do you have?¡±

    ¡°¡¯Bout fifty ... trees I guess, well seedlings or saplings. It will take ¡¯bout two years ¡¯fore they¡¯re big enough to be useful and produce seeds. I sacrificed one of them for that. You¡¯ll know better than me who needs to see ¡¯em.¡±

    * * *

    The following day the ponies had made the news and Mary switched off her phone.

 Chapter 94

    Clarrina and Zoreena were enjoying a cosy chat in their cabin. Thankfully the sisters weren¡¯t pregnant so their family wasn¡¯t growing. On the whole they approved of removing them and their family from Dramatine. After their husband¡¯s surprisingly successful intervention in the civil war anyone connected to Tomcat was likely to be seen as a target.

    Tomcat for his part was standing on his quarterdeck where his exceptional hearing allowed him to listen in on his wives plotting. He wasn¡¯t over fond of surprises and appreciated the advance warning of their plans. He was just awaiting word from Soulbinder. Then he would be out of here. The locals were keeping their heads down and the crew didn¡¯t like the way any tavern or inn they patronised emptied.

    The Emir¡¯s spies were not very well trained, or possibly they were just too arrogant. But wherever one of turned up everyone who could leave left. And the damn idiots were following his people around constantly. A couple had even tried to join his crew.

    Tomcat¡¯s ear flicked, from the conversation going on in his cabin it sounded like they would be visiting Port Salvage before heading home. Not that he minded, Brandalla was nice if a bit timid and easily swayed. ¡®Now why did Eveningstar remind me of Victoria? They certainly look nothing alike, and yet there is a look in their eyes...¡¯

    = = O = =

    Raalouf the bloodyhanded, Emir of Dramatine That arrogant priestess Soulbinder of the drow leave his throne room. He had had to grant the bitch more concessions than he liked but she had proved willing to fight on his behalf. But how had the bitch known so much about his city and his plans. His new spymaster was obviously outmatched by whoever served Soulbinder.

    Up in the rafters, concealed by a dusty frieze a large rat watched and listened, Jill the man-rat was enjoying herself.

    When the drow had left the palace, Raalouf signed to his usher.

    Feldspar Ironfounder and Boril the Bold stumped their way towards the Emir¡¯s throne. They stopped at the usual spot. Feldspar concealed his anguish that his uncle Mika would never again stride at his side.

    ¡®Blast and damn the drow for fetching artillery to a street fight, we¡¯d be rid of this bloodthirsty tyrant if they hadn¡¯t. It seemed such a good idea. And it nearly worked,¡¯ mused Feldspar to himself as he watched the two faced untrustworthy human on the throne.

    Raalouf watched the two dwarves, he didn¡¯t recall seeing them before but the drow had succeeded in reducing their leadership quite effectively. Maybe it would work in his favour but somehow he doubted it. Dwarves tended to be inflexible and set in their ways.

    ¡®Inflexible, straightforward, totally undiplomatic, and brutally honest. Well I¡¯ll try to match them then. Nothing to loose for once.¡¯ Thought Raalouf to himself.

    ¡°You sided with my uncle. You failed. I still want trade with you. As reparations you will repair and rebuild all buildings damaged or destroyed by the revolt. Terms of trade and tariffs will remain unchanged. Can you accept on behalf of your king or will you have to get permission.¡±

    Feldspar kept his face expressionless. ¡°No. We¡¯ll have to inform Stonefist.¡±

    ¡°If each and every one of you swear not to return until the treaty is ratified anew, then you may leave. As for you Feldspar Ironfounder and Boril the Bold take my offer to your king,¡± ordered Raalouf.

    = = O = =

    Half an hour later Eveningstar watched with Jill, now in her humanoid guise as the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory sailed out of Dramatine¡¯s harbour. ¡°Interesting terms Jill, Raalouf is a slippery fellow and a bit too easygoing. Thanks for the enchanted ring. It¡¯s interesting being so small.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C FROG * * *

    Driven by curiosity Doris Mayhew decided to go and look at the barren piece of contaminated dirt she had sold young Frog. The seller had been satisfied to offload something that kept getting him fined for contaminating the local bayou. She had warned Frog but she wondered if he had truly realised the implications behind the regular fines.

    She stopped her car in a lay by and walked down the road. Well truthfully it was little more than a track but it satisfied the conditions of the bet Frog had told her about.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    She came to a halt, her mouth a perfect O of surprise. The lot that had been totally barren less than a week ago was now covered in lush vegetation. And in the centre of the lot a small grove of trees was growing around a large oak. There was no way Frog could park a mobile home in this lot, his Harley barely fitted between the trees. The rest of the plot was covered in large bushes or small trees with hanging yellow flowers. She spotted Frog¡¯s pixie flitting among them.

    Frog, alerted by Angel emerged from his cave, patting the oak in passing as he made his way to his visitor.

    ¡°Hi Doris. What do you think? My friend Mary figured out how to decontaminate things and we applied her methods. I think it was well worth the hard work.¡±

    ¡°But, but how did all this grow so fast?¡± asked Doris.

    ¡°That was down to the Oak Maiden. She lives in the Oak and well, she wanted a forest around her. She¡¯s a Dryad. She moved in when Angel and I cleansed this plot.¡±

    ¡°You could make good money cleansing places. This wasn¡¯t the only place those bastards poisoned.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think people would want dryads moving in. Make no mistake the Oak Maiden is nice. If you¡¯re friendly and she¡¯s happy that is. Thing is, she can control all the plants around her and use them as weapons if need be. Then too, the swampy bit seems to have attracted gators.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary released her human avatar and reformed her new giant octopus avatar. She explored the sea floor of her growing domain and went to visit one of her new plantations. Soon she was sixty meters under the surface and right at the edge of her domain. She examined the unboosted liftwood plantings as they arched over the sea floor setting down roots at regular intervals. A bit like ivy on a wall but working their way along the sea floor.

    About half the plants were outside her domain and Mary satisfied herself that despite being slightly smaller and less developed than their fellows in her domain they were not suffering. If an octopus could grin Mary would have been grinning.

    Then she set off even further under the surface and further towards the centre of her domain. She soon came in sight of her domains guardians. The second plantation was far more developed. The plant¡¯s woody branches and their associated trunks were comparable in size of that of a ten-year-old tree. She marked the two biggest for harvest. Then she ordered a third pruned. Trees grew back after all and these should too.

    Gathering a large escort of guards and workers Mary headed towards the island of Hawaii itself and away from her domain. Finally after travelling for about an hour she picked a spot about eighty meters deep. Her octopi assistants plant fifty seedlings. She fed the seedlings manna and nursed them until they matched the growth of the first plantation she had studied. Satisfied she left a few guards and returned home with her entourage.

    * * *

    Conferring with Mycroft gained her the seeds of potential spacecraft. Slowly the Far Voyager began to come together in one of her undersea caves. In an armoured cell within the spaceship to be one of her specials took shape, and with the assistance of Mycroft, Moriarty and Carroll, Hawai?iloa the Navigator was born and started to learn, even as he became the heart and soul of the Far Voyager.

    ? Are you planning a new avatar to take to space in Mother? ? asked Mycroft.

    Mary shuddered, ¡°By all the gods and little fishes NO! ... I¡¯m a water girl, me. I¡¯ll leave space and the moon for Lewis an¡¯ Hawai?iloa. But the challenge of getting there an¡¯ overtakin¡¯ the local governments, now that looks like fun. A dungeon on the moon for Lewis an¡¯ a base for me to boast of. I had you give Hawai?iloa wanderlust ¡®cause I figure he could make it to Mars. A Mars base an¡¯ dungeon would be cool.¡±

    Mary stretched and smirked. ¡°But Mycroft, everythin¡¯ I¡¯m doin¡¯ on Earth is secondary ¡®cause I can¡¯t get away with what¡¯s really important to me. On Parthia an¡¯ Tarifax an¡¯ possibly Ambuila if I can get there, I¡¯ll control the orbitals. I¡¯ll be able to rain down pure hell on my an¡¯ Ocidon''s enemies.¡±

    ? Why not here on Earth Mother? ? asked Moriarty.

    ¡°¡¯Cause everyone knows just how dangerous it is to cede the orbitals. They¡¯d all come down on me like a ton of bricks. I am absolutely not placin¡¯ anything in Earth¡¯s orbit. Not that I¡¯ll have to with bases on the Moon.¡± She grinned.

    ¡°Anythin¡¯ else Mycroft?¡±

    Mary could have sworn Mycroft sighed, ? Please can we implement another of us, one fond of talking with people and happy to answer phones all day? ?

    ¡°¡¯K. Can see the need. Drivin¡¯ you all nuts?¡±

    ? Yes Mother! ? replied Mycroft and Moriarty in unison.

    ¡°¡¯K, I¡¯ll clone another units. Will the three of you prepare the personality. How ¡®bout callin¡¯ her Lois Lane? ¡®Bout time there was a girl ¡®mongst you lot to stir thing up. Sorry Mycroft.¡±

    ? You¡¯ll have to speak to Meadows. I believe the government wants to ¨C guard, or should that be, control, your liftwood plantation. ?

    Mary smirked, ¡°Yeah, figures. Better give ¡¯em the bad news that they¡¯ll need scuba gear suitable for a dive of eighty meters.¡±

    ? You sure you want to give them that? ?

    ¡°Yeah, have to feed ¡¯em the occasional treat to avoid getting¡¯ drafted or sometin¡¯.¡±

    = = O = =

    Commander Meadows was playing host to two biologists. The jar of anti-gravity wood and the little model had both been removed to undisclosed locations. He had been surprised that someone had bothered to inform him that the slivers of wood did in fact seem to have anti-gravity properties. The two biologists in his study seemed to be sulking. It would appear from their conversation that they resented having been removed from the vicinity of the samples.

    He was actually glad when his mobile phone rang and it was Mary.

    ¡°Hello Mary.¡±

    ¡°Hi Simon, if you want to see my plantation you¡¯ll need scuba gear rated for an eighty meter dive. Quite happy to take you. Got the Storm Dolphin ready to go.¡±

 Chapter 95

    The three walruses stirred with the dawn, the night had been short but sufficient for Ava, Madison and Tyler. The made sure they had their water breathing and dark vision enchantments active before slipping off the ice sheet.

    They swam down and once under the ice sheet they continued to descend and headed even further south. Barely stopping to snack on some passing fish they continued until at long last the seafloor came into ¡°sight¡±, or at least into range of their darkvision enchantment.

    They found a hollow and rested before checking the direction of the core they were seeking and continuing on their journey.

    Finally at the beginning of the third day of their odyssey they slowed and spread out. It was Ava who found the dungeon, the core. They gathered round the blue gem that sat in the centre of a domain about a meter across. They easily destroyed the dungeon¡¯s sole defender a slightly evolved anglerfish. It looked even uglier than its normal brethren.

    They contacted Mary for instructions as none of them had expected to find a core that was so profoundly inert. So near extinction.

    Mary looked through Madison¡¯s eyes and sighed. She was tempted to get Tyler and the girls to leave. The only reason she hesitated was that the three had persevered and been unfailing in their efforts to serve her.

    ? Please touch it Madison. ?

    Madison reached out a flipper and touched the core. Mary reached out and forced a connection, gaining a measure of control. She fed the core a small amount of manna and made it absorb its domain.

    ? Now pick it up and return to the surface. Make your way to one of my portals and come home. Before you enter Mock Turtle make sure you activate the new enchanted earrings I¡¯ve developed based on something I created for Tarifax. It will allow you to control the temperature of the air within a centimetre of your bodies. It¡¯ll allow you to remain cold, err, cool. ?

    * * * EARTH ¨C FROG * * *

    Frog concentrated and then grumbled to himself. ¡®Well Mary did warn me this might happen, but I had hoped for a little more time.¡¯

    Angel hovered over the large pulsing Tiger Eye gem that presided over the root filled cavern under their small patch of wilderness. The Oak Maiden stood in a corner draped in the roots of her oak tree. Her green inhuman eyes glittered in her angular brown skinned face. Her light brown hair was liberally adorned with green leaves. They both watched with interest as Frog gathered his will and slowly formed his first avatar.

    During one of the pauses, after Frog had dismissed his second attempt. Angel asked, ¡°Why are you doing it this way Frog? Why don¡¯t you just choose from the dungeon interface menu?¡±

    ? Because Angel, I, we checked out the abilities and limitations of a standard unmodified avatar and they are not as flexible as Mary¡¯s version. Harder to damage and safer in my, our dungeon¡¯s domain but very limited outside, and then Mary gave us the template for that recall gate thingie. ?

    Then, once again the Avatar started to form on the couch in the middle of the cavern. Apparently the third try was the charm and Frog¡¯s inner mental picture of himself rushed to completion. There was a ting and Frog felt his core update itself. He also felt his other self disengage his attention as their merge ended. He knew that they both now had access to their new avatar.

    Frog sighed with satisfaction as he watched Angel hover over his new body, currently untenanted. ¡®Just one more thing to do,¡¯ he thought tiredly. ¡®Then I can rest.¡¯

    Slowly a necklace manifested around his neck, and hanging from it a crystal globe that seemed to contain the image of an oak tree.

    The Oak Maiden smiled revealing a set of pointed teeth. ¡°Nice,¡± she remarked. ¡°Now you¡¯ll need guards.¡±

    Frog settled himself into his new body and practiced switching his perception between it and his core for a while before falling asleep.

    = = O = =

    Olivier Broussette leaned against his old Ford as he examined the sight of the blight that wasn¡¯t with narrowed eyes. He had tried several of the new abilities he had gained since he had chosen to become a shaman six months previously. He could sense some powerful spirit had made its home in the young oak he could barely see through all the verdant growth. The Blight was gone from this patch of ground and he wanted, no needed to find out how it had been achieved.

    He would have tried to find the ones who lived here if it wasn¡¯t for the glowing sign he had been able to see from the moment he had tried to evaluate the Oak.

    { You have found a dungeon: The Arena of Blood }You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    The System had a lot of vague information regarding Dungeons, and most of it was not very reassuring. Nor was the addendum, ¡®dungeons on Earth may differ from those on other worlds¡¯.

    * * * EARTH ¨C JAKE * * *

    Jake grinned at his buddies. They were wedged round a table in the local MacDonald¡¯s. The bounty those media creeps had paid them for the Alligators had been sweet

    ¡°So ¡®Alligator¡¯ what¡¯s next?¡± asked Carlito to snickers.

    Jake lost his smile, ¡°Stop it with the ¡®Alligator¡¯ tag bro, I¡¯m just Jake. Those stupid media creeps thought that one up all on their own. Next time I¡¯ll maybe call them Whitey or worse.¡±

    ¡°Hey calm down Bro. I thought you hated that Whitey crap?¡±

    ¡°I do, but some of those smarmy creeps deserve it,¡± scowled Jake.

    ¡°So Jake, what¡¯s next? We found a dungeon man, a real honest to god fantasy type dungeon right here under New York. It¡¯s even got a name, Alligator Haven.¡±

    Jake scowled again, ¡°And the next one who calls me Alligator is gonna get a punch inna mouth.¡± Then he grinned again, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s so cool. I figure we¡¯re going to found the Adventurer¡¯s Guild just like in the role playing games and books.¡±

    The friends looked round at each other and high fived.

    ¡°Way to go man, then we¡¯ll all be official adventurers,¡± chortled Carlito.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Commander Meadows was sitting in one of the fighting chairs at the stern of the Storm Dolphin watching the coastguard cutters idling off to starboard. To port the USS Ocean Pride was currently offloading a minisub.

    Joanne, Art and Tod were already in the ocean, as was Mary and one of the leopard girls. Meadows looked back over his shoulder to check on the other leopard girl. She was seated in the command chair on the bridge, and he was convinced she was pouting.

    He almost missed the moment they all dove, the move was smooth and they swiftly dwindled into the depths. The minisub looked clumsy by comparison and the scuba geared escorts just looked clumsy. Meadows grinned to himself when he saw the look of frustration on the face of Commander Farris who was standing on the deck of the idling coast guard cutter.

    Under the waves Mary arrowed down into the depths, she remained in touch with a couple of her unseen escort. When she reached the only one of her plantations that she planned to share with the authorities she indicated the slender trunks of her greatly modified version of Tarifax¡¯s liftwood trees as they spread sideways along the sea floor. The plants spread out along the sea floor in a complicated tangle, leafy branches growing from the horizontal trunks and reaching for the surface.

    She could imagine the mass frustration of the biologists in their minisub as they saw the plants and realized that they were so handicapped when it came to studying them. Mary floated to one side with Tessa at her shoulder. Further back lost in the gloom two of her sea serpents awaited her call.

    ¡®¡¯K then, I¡¯ll give you lot this little plantation, I¡¯ll even tell you ¡¯bout their life cycle and when they¡¯ll produce seeds an¡¯ what to do not to let those seeds escape but I¡¯ll bet everyone¡¯ll know this location within the month. I¡¯ll lay odds only one or two of these plants ¡¯ll survive the year out. The biologists ¡¯ll ask for samples an¡¯ that¡¯ll kill several. Then the tourist an¡¯ outraged luddites an¡¯ anti genetics fruitcakes ¡¯ll crash the party. An¡¯ get all indignant at me for plain¡¯ god.¡¯ Mary giggled.

    Then Mary touched Tod¡¯s arm and pointed up. She headed for the surface followed by Tessa and her sea serpents. As she approached the surface she accelerated and was able to come halfway out of the water facilitating her boarding of the Storm Dolphin. Tessa emulated her while her detail used more traditional methods return on board.

    Mary dropped into the other fighting chair and grinned as she strapped herself in and prepared her rod. ¡°Think I¡¯ll leave ¡¯em to it Simon. The plants are in US waters an¡¯ nobody owns this so you might as well let ¡¯em all know they¡¯re welcome to the liftwood plants. It¡¯s their problem now.¡±

    Tesssa shook herself partially dry. ¡°The enchantment worked a treat Mary. Can I keep it?¡±

    Mary grinned, she tossed a ring to Tessa even as she urged one of her serpents to show itself. ¡°Yes do, and give that to your sister. I might need you underwater at some point.¡±

    As Meadows watched his team climb aboard, his attention was diverted by the gigantic snake¡¯s head that broke the surface behind them and rose a good three meters above the surface of the ocean, before curving and dropping back into the sea. The ring of the sea serpent¡¯s body continued above the waves for a long moment before finally vanishing.

    Meadows was still staring when the Storm Dolphin started to move and Mary returned her attention to her rod.

    * * * EARTH ¨C IN THE NEWS * * *

    Showing a film of strange looking jellyfish sailing past a large blue pyramid.

    Scientists monitoring the oil spill caused by the sinking of the tanker Bertrand near Galveston have observed a new species of jellyfish. These creatures seem to have been attracted by the spill and were observed absorbing it.

    The creatures apparently metabolise the crude oil and when sated inflate and take to the air like hydrogen filled balloons.

    A few specimens have been captured for study.

    Be careful of these creatures, their stinging tentacles are long, typically in the order of three meters and can deliver a nasty sting.

    * * *

    And in Redmond, Washington there have been more sightings of Zombies. The public is asked to not approach these unfortunates as though slow they are mindlessly aggressive.

    While it is not known how zombies are created, it has been established that in all cases so far the people in question had died and been declared dead before becoming zombies.

    * * *

    Jacob ¡°Alligator¡± Hennessy has confirmed that the alligator found in the sewers of New York is not unique. Our crew tracked him and his crew down last week when they emerged from their latest exploration with the bodies of two of the sewer alligators.

    * * *

    Is this the fabled Sea Serpent of legend? Our camera crew caught a glimpse of this creature at an undisclosed location near Hawaii. Although it looks like a snake, it isn¡¯t. Gills are plainly visible behind it¡¯s head.

    The film loops a few times while ¡°experts¡± blather on stating ¡°facts¡± that they are unable to verify. The film shows a streamlined powerboat with two people sitting on chairs in the rear one looking back over her shoulder at the pilot while three others clamber aboard. The boat goes blurred as the camera focuses on a gigantic snakelike head that rises up from the ocean and drops down again leaving a loop that slowly sinks for about a minute before vanishing.

 Chapter 96

    Mary welcomed Tyler and the girls back and grinned at them. They sat quietly watching a band of kids organise themselves before heading for the dungeon while a bunch of their friends gathered to watch their adventures on a big screen nearby.

    ¡°That¡¯s new,¡± mentioned Ava. ¡°What gives?¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve been growing it steadily so as to add stories for the younger ones. Well Timothy, that lot¡¯s gaffer, came to me an¡¯ asked if I could put together something that would test their ingenuity.¡± Mary grinned, ¡°So I did. And then I ran it past Trish, Jerica and Drina. An¡¯ I consulted with their parents. They¡¯re all watchin¡¯. So is other me.¡±

    Tyler shook his head and chuckled.

    ¡°So let¡¯s see this dormant dungeon core you collected for me. Nicely done by the way. How do you like the air con rings.¡±

    Madison looked confused for a moment, ¡°Oh, you mean the enchanted rings that let us keep cool? They¡¯re great!¡±

    Tyler nodded while Ava said, ¡°Simply marevellous.¡±

    Madison produced the pale blue core and placed it in the sand in front of Mary.

    Mary fed it a thread of life energy followed by some manna. ¡°Come on, come on, wake already.¡±

    Mary glared at the inactive core and fed it a thread more manna. Slowly, oh so slowly the core flickered. ¡°Not promisin¡¯. C¡¯mon wake already.¡±

    * * *

    Dr Lara Fischer woke slowly, reluctantly. ¡®Where am I, what is happening? Stop poking me!¡¯

    The children watching the screen showing the adventures of their friends, cheered and jeered.

    Dr Lara Fisher jerked awake.

    ? What! Where am I? Get me away from those kids. I hate kids. ?

    Mary narrowed her eyes in displeasure and prepared to strike if needed.

    ? Welcome to Parthia. I¡¯m Mary. Who are you? ?

    ? I was Dr Lara Fisher before something that believe it was a god killed me and stole my soul. Where am I now? Last I knew I was in the arctic. ?

    ? Well Dr Fisher, Tyler an¡¯ his ladies rescued you from the bottom of one of Parthia¡¯s Antarctic seas. An¡¯ you¡¯re a dungeon core. ?

    ? What¡¯s a dungeon core. Is this hell? ?

    ? No this is Blue Lagoon. And a dungeon core is the seat of the intelligence that inhabits, creates and runs a dungeon. Just ask Bluey, I mean the System. What do you know of the idiot god who placed you where Tyler found you? ?

    ? Nothing. Can¡¯t you shut those brats up? I¡¯m getting a migraine. ?

    Mary reached and returned Dr Fisher to sleep.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C DEEPSIX & FRIENDS * * *

    It took Deepsix several minutes to feel comfortable walking, initially he had to fight against the conviction that he was falling every time he took a jerky step. Honestly why couldn¡¯t humans hover like sensible beings instead of stalking around like some demented wader bird. And while he approved of his new self¡¯s ability to see far off things, he truly missed his former self¡¯s ability to see all round. He found himself having to fight the urge to keep looking over his shoulders.

    But slowly his new body¡¯s instincts took over and Deepsix settled down and became reconciled to being human.

    * * *

    Falreena watched the new Twiceborn in bemusement; he seemed to be having difficulty walking. Also he was constantly jerking his head around. Her daughter and her friend were smothering their giggles. She couldn¡¯t wait for Creevar and his ... adventurers to leave so she could return to her temple and her comfortable routine. After, that is, she gave her daughter a talking to about manners.

    When Deepsix seemed to ¨C accept ¨C his new self and was walking easily and only looking from side to side on occasion, Falreena noted Creevar nod in satisfaction and head for the ritual chamber¡¯s door. She followed one of Creevars followers and made her way to the door.

    They made their way through the temple and Falreena smiled in anticipation as she recognised that they were approaching the entrance. Then when they entered the public atrium she found one of her temple¡¯s young messenger girls waiting for her. She felt a sense of foreboding at the sight, the girl did not look happy, her face was tear streaked and she was carrying a small bundle.

    The girl looked up and moved to stand in front of her. She cleared her throat, then she recited. ¡°Falreena I don¡¯t know what you have done to come to our lady¡¯s attention but I¡¯ll be keeping my eye on you in future. That is if you ever return. Azurea instructed me to tell you that you must accompany her agent on his mission and take all who know about this with you. And yes that includes this miserable little hellion I¡¯m using to inform you of your mission. So dictated by her holiness Belatranda.¡±

    The miserable little hellion sniffed and rubbed her eyes.

    Falreena cursed under her breath even as she heard Creevar sigh with resignation beside her.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°What a...¡± ¡°...catty bitch,¡± murmured Avor and Essa even as they eyed up the new members of the expedition and ran up a mental list of supplies needed.

    The little hellion blinked, licked her lips and said, ¡°Err... I, um, overheard Belatranda telling Fideralla that she wasn¡¯t gonna tell you Azurea suggested going to Valdisport and catching the Queen of the Seas. Um, she said something about thinking it would be a bad idea because, because there were priests of Zoratus on the ship.¡±

    ¡°And why are you telling me this?¡± asked Falreena.

    The messenger girl rubbed her bottom apprehensively, ¡°Um... ¡¯cause Azurea said it. And it was Belatranda who thought you shouldn¡¯t...¡±

    ¡°Very good.¡± Falreena turned to Creevar, ¡°You¡¯re in charge of this circus. It¡¯s your decision. Maybe you should check with Creevar.¡±

    = = O = =

    Dorados Thunderfist grumbled as once again he removed his spectacles to clean of the spray. The last few days had been a nightmare. He would never have believed waves could grow so big. Far too often during the storm he had expected to die. And Lantina had been no help, lying there puking her guts out.

    He watched with satisfaction as the Queen of the Seas approached Valdisport. He observed the colossus of Valdisport with interest as they approached. It had one foot on either side of the harbour mouth and was posed leaning on a long staff while gazing out to sea shading its eyes with its other hand. And at night it served as a lighthouse, beams of magical light shining from its eyes.

    He glanced sideways at Lantina Featherbright. ¡°How come you got so sick during the storm, I thought sea...¡±

    Lantina¡¯s mouth turned down in displeasure, ¡°Under the sea is fine, especially during a storm. Not bobbing around in a fragile wooden cockleshell.¡±

    Dorados blinked in surprise, ¡°The Queen¡¯s not made of wood girl, dunno what this black material is but it is not wood.¡±

    Lantina¡¯s mouth dropped open, and for the first time she really looked at the hull of the ship she was travelling in.

    Later as they eased under the colossus, Doradus looked up and satisfied himself that it was most definitely male. Legend hadn¡¯t been telling lies. He looked round and spotted Lantina examining everything. He shook his head and tutted. The girl should have noticed the oddities of the ship they were travelling in without him having to point them out.

    * * *

    Deepsix watched the busy port from the protection of the adventurers his great lady Azurea had contracted. This world was a true marvel; the air was fresh and clear. Well not that fresh here next to the harbour, but it was breathable. True there were no airships crossing the skies but the sailing ships were beautiful.

    He truly hoped he would be able to help his lady and maybe Tarifax too would have clear skies again. He felt sorrow that it would be too late for so many. He looked around again. He had become accustomed to see the glow of those beings that were connected to the gods. The brighter glow of the priests and paladins. The lesser but still bright glow of simple clerics and champions and the faint, flickering glow of the true believers, the fanatics. Those last were the scariest.

    He caught the eye of Hellianna, the newly named mischief maker who must surely have been a wisp in a previous life. No glow there. His Lady¡¯s priestess and her two satellites glowed greenly. Priestess and clergy. Then the adventurers. A blue glow, one priest and champions. The twins, slightly hazy, potential champions.

    Then Deepsix¡¯s eyes swept over the ship that was gliding easily towards the pier they were standing on. Orange glows, two priests, three champions and the rest of the crew appeared to be potential champions. All glowing with the orange of hostility. Enemies. His heart stuttered, he had to succeed, for his Lady¡¯s sake. For his world¡¯s future.

    * * * EARTH ¨C FLORIDA * * *

    ¡°Hey Jay what the hell is up with you? Why aren¡¯t you blowing those cheerleaders off?¡± asked Logan as he carefully rolled himself a cigarette.

    Jay grinned lazily, ¡°Ya know I check up all the girls, well Susie¡¯s got a stepsister.¡±

    Chris leered, ¡°And she¡¯s hot?¡±

    ¡°No, kind of ugly actually. But she¡¯s rich. She¡¯s loaded,¡± gloated Jay.

    Logan glanced at Chris who lifted his Budweiser and grinned. ¡°How can Susie have a rich stepsister when her father¡¯s not rich?¡±

    Jay grinned, ¡°The girl¡¯s some kinda geek. She¡¯s cracked the System somehow. Got a holding company and contracts with the Feds. She¡¯s rolling in green.¡±

    ¡°Well then she¡¯s gonna see right through you Jay. And where is she hiding anyway, how come we¡¯ve never seen her?¡± asked Chris.

    ¡°She lives in Maui. But she¡¯s due to spend a few weeks here on a parental visit soon. And I¡¯ll get Susie to introduce us. She¡¯s sixteen, she¡¯ll be seventeen when she comes. Ugly chick. Seventeen. It¡¯ll be a cinch.¡± Jay grinned and went to admire himself in the mirror.

    ¡°Fuck! That¡¯s low Jay, even for you. Count me out,¡± said Logan.

    Jay grinned and dug out a much thumbed magazine from a pile of papers. ¡°But Logan, wouldn¡¯t you like a ride on that boat. She owns it.¡±

    ¡°What? Lemme see.¡± Logan grabbed the open magazine and looked at the pictures; then he started to read the article.

    Jay stole Logan¡¯s cigarette and took a drag. He looked disappointed. ¡°Hey this is only tobacco. I thought I told you where you could get your hands on some weed.¡±

    ¡°Ma¡¯s got a nose like a bloodhound. Not worth the hassle,¡± grunted Logan.

    Chris grinned, ¡°Besides he doesn¡¯t do drugs. Thought you knew that Jay.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    When she had been hired to cater for a girl¡¯s seventeenth birthday party Tamara Feinstein had never imagined anything like the eclectic collection of guests that filled the garden. One thing that was totally absent was the swarms of teenage girls she had anticipated. Most of the guests were older, and she had never in her wildest days imagined that so many different races existed. Elves, yes they were becoming common lately. And the dwarf, not too surprising either. But all these varied animal people, she hadn¡¯t realised there were so many different carnivorous animal folk, then too, there were little people in the pond, they seemed to have pet octopi too. Then there were all the pixies, and for contrast some giants.

    Things were not going well, all the special dishes she had prepared were languishing. And now the birthday girl was firing up her grills and fetching out coolers of fish to cheers while some of the neighbours were fetching bread, corn and beer. This was a disaster. Even the two teenage girls were abandoning her when the fish hit the grills.

    The big native couple in traditional dress with their son grinned at her and seemed to be sympathetic. But they too headed for the fish.

    After the party Tamara was almost in tears. She supervised the packing of most of her untouched food, and nobody had solicited one of her business cards. She sat numb in her van and looked helplessly at her assistant. ¡°What happened?¡±

    ¡°Sorry boss, you didn¡¯t believe the client and catered for what you see as a typical teenage girl¡¯s party. That¡¯s what happened. And now the shelter will have a bonanza. If they can stomach all the sugar.¡±

    * * *

    Commander Meadows looked at his team sitting round their dining room table. ¡°Mary¡¯s father and his wife and stepdaughter were present. They didn¡¯t arrive by car, or by plane. So Mary¡¯s method of transport is somewhere in that house.¡±

    ¡°It pretty much has to be, though to be fair those leopard girls could have snuck them in and out without us seeing anything,¡± offered Tod.

    ¡°What worried me,¡± said lt. Partlow, ¡°are the talking octopi that were keeping the sea sprites company in the salt water pond.¡±

    ¡°Nobody will believe us about that Anne,¡± sighed Meadows.

 Chapter 97

    Captain Gail Stormchaser stood by the wheel of the Queen of the Seas with Harold. They watched as their passengers circled round one another bristling like angry cats and dogs. ¡°Well Harold, I hope we get home without incidents.¡±

    The ship¡¯s purser shrugged. ¡°They all want to get to Silverton. And the followers of the new gods need to make a good impression. The other two aren¡¯t fighters though I don¡¯t doubt they can look after themselves.¡±

    * * *

    By the second day of their journey things had calmed down considerably. Harrassan stood by the lee rail with Horaxanna. ¡°I had worried about you. Are you getting used to sea travel.¡±

    Horaxanna gripped the ships rail with a fierce grip. ¡°No! I still find it uncanny. The floor shouldn¡¯t move around. But Avor and Essa found an effective potion to combat sea sickness.¡± She looked fiercely at the horizon. ¡°They tell me it doesn¡¯t work for storms. I hope there won¡¯t be a storm.¡±

    ¡°Me too,¡± agreed Harrassan.

    * * *

    Deepsix watched as the specs of land climbed over the horizon, slowly showing themselves to be low-lying sandy islands. They had been in the dungeon¡¯s domain for what seemed like hours. He was sorry the trip was coming to an end. Despite belonging to an hostile pantheon the crew had been surprisingly accommodating and understanding, reserving their real hatred for Vortexius Blackbeard. A point of view he empathised with wholeheartedly.

    All too soon the ship was docked and they were disembarking. Harrassan arranged for lodgings in the Spirit Dolphin Inn, which occupied a peculiar half submerged building.

    After Harrassan and Sreecator had gone to find Danilus Oakborn Deepsix went to sit on the beach so he could study the temple that seemed to be floating in the middle of the lagoon. He noted with some surprise that more and more children were starting to congregate in the port area. Then he spotted what must be a high priestess by her glow emerging from the lagoon. And he just knew that she was also a dungeon¡¯s voice.

    Deepsix stood then knelt in respect. ¡°Pray excuse me lady, may I have the boon of your attention.¡±

    Drina sighed in resignation. She flipped her wet mane over her shoulder and combed it out of her face with her fingers. Behind her Joy and Pounce dragged themselves out of the lagoon with their front legs. Their long serpentlike fish tails simmered and they were all cat once again. And clean and dry, Drina envied them that little bit of magic.

    ¡°Certainly, but please get up, do. We¡¯re not much for ceremony here,¡± she squinted and grinned. ¡°Well met o twiceborn wisp. How are you finding walking on two legs?¡±

    Deepsix realised he was kneeling to a young elven girl wearing nothing more than a bathing costume that was cut in a way that left her gill slits clear. He almost felt silly, but he cold see her glow and that gave him caution.

    ¡°Please lady priestess. It¡¯s important. My lady goddess wishes to meet with yours to discuss a way to save the worlds. It is really very important to my goddess, and to me.¡±

    Drina cocked her head to one side as she considered Deepsix. ¡°And who might you be twiceborn wisp, and who is your lady goddess?¡±

    Deepsix almost despaired, he felt he was making a mess of things. ¡°My name is Deepsix ... and my goddess is ... Azurea.¡±

    Drina¡¯s eyebrows almost disappeared under her fringe. ¡°I will ask Mary, I can¡¯t promise anything.¡±

    ¡°Please... My world... No, my former world needs so much help. And Azurea believes ... believes your mistress is one of the few who could help.¡±

    ? Drina love, keep him there for another few minutes. I¡¯m sending you something for Mr Deepsix Twiceborn to look after. Got a persona non grata to get rid off an¡¯ he¡¯ll do nicely. As for meetin¡¯ the Blue haired Cow. ¡¯K, will do at our new temple in the deeps. Tomorrow noon. Deepsix will have to figure out how to handle that himself. If he asks ¨C procrastinate, but allow everyone who arrived with him to come along. Oh an¡¯ feel free to invite the other two seekers of knowledge. ?If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Drina flicked her eyes to where Tomcat¡¯s welcoming party was congregating. She still had time. She returned her attention to the desperate looking Deepsix.

    ¡°Mother tells me she is willing to meet with the bl¡ª Azurea tomorrow at noon in her deep water temple. You and the priestess that accompanied you may attend.¡±

    Deepsix¡¯s eyes flicked to the temple in the centre of the lagoon and his face showed a dawning hope.

    Drina grinned, ¡°No, that one belongs to Ocidon. Mother¡¯s temple lies in a deep valley on the sea floor between these islands and the islands to the south.¡±

    Deepsix looked stricken. ¡°How?¡±

    ¡°Oh I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll figure it out. Get Harassan to help you out. Or your priestess. Don¡¯t forget to let Azurea know.¡± Drina smiled, ¡°It really isn¡¯t that difficult Deepsix. Your problem isn¡¯t unique. Lots of people have difficulty breathing underwater.¡±

    Just then a young boy came running. He stopped next to Joy, scratched her behind the ear and smiled broadly at Drinna. ¡°Hiya sis. Mother asked me to give you this, she tol¡¯ me she¡¯d tol¡¯ you what she wanted done with it. Mother sent me through a portal. Oh wow, it was fun, one second I¡¯m at the Manga dungeon watching Timothy and his friends getting trounced, and then I¡¯m next to the well behind Tomcat¡¯s house.¡±

    Deepsix¡¯s eyes widened in surprise; that looked like a dormant dungeon core.

    Drina smiled, ¡°Sounds cool Mar. So you gonna watch Tomcat arrive.¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah! You bet,¡± and with a wave Mar decamped to join the crowd by the harbour.

    Drina looked down at the pale blue core, she handed it to Deepsix who almost dropped it in his surprise. ¡°Here, this is Dr Lara Fisher. She was culled from Earth by the Frost King before he shattered and planted under the ice by Ice Heart as a dungeon. Tyler, Ava and Madison rescued her. She was comatose and close to total collapse due to having been placed in a totally inadequate location and then abandoned. Mother doesn¡¯t like her and declared her Personna non Grata. Will you take her and see her settled somewhere she has a chance of thriving.¡±

    Deepsix blinked away tears, moved by the tale. ¡°I will be honoured to. So she is a former human from Earth like Frog, like your Mary. Is she still linked to her other self?¡±

    Drina shook her head. ¡°The Frost King unlike Azurea took all her soul. He killed her back on Earth. Oh and you might be happy to know that Frog has managed to free his mind and he and Strelitzia are now free of his captor. They killed him so in a way you have been avenged. And the Frog on Earth has his own dungeon and also has a competent companion.¡±

    ¡°Thank you. I¡¯m glad. But why does Mary dislike Dr Lara Fisher?¡±

    ¡°Dr Fisher does not like children and made her feelings plain when Mary was indulging the islands kids with the kids dungeon. She didn¡¯t hurt her. She just wants her gone.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary wandered into the kitchen in the morning. ¡°Morning mama, anything you need today.¡±

    ¡°Morning sweetie, and sorry about your party. I hired that firm on Heather¡¯s recomendation. I should have been more careful. I did tell them there would be a lot of adults.¡±

    ¡°That explains the rabbit food then. I had wondered.¡± Mary leaned over and kissed her mother, ¡°No worries mama, love you, and it¡¯s the thought that counts.¡±

    Her mother gave her a fierce hug. ¡°Love you too.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I had fun, spent some time on Parthia with Jerica while other me and Trish spent some time with you. Isn¡¯t Drina cute?¡±

    ¡°Yes she¡¯s adorable. Are you going to give her some ponies?¡±

    ¡°Gods no! Drina and her cats work fine, adding my little ponies...¡± Mary shuddered. ¡°Not happenin¡¯. An¡¯ not puttin¡¯ any on Parthia either.¡± Mary¡¯s eyes lost focus and she stared into space for awhile.

    ¡°I know that look dear, what are you plottin¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Just thinkin¡¯. Maybe I could persuade one of those wierd guys that are all gaga over the ponies to become a dungeon an¡¯ set up near disneyland or one of those movie theme park things on the west coast.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare Mary,¡± ordered Jane Rowley sternly, but then spoiled the effect by bursting into giggles.

    * * * EARTH ¨C IN THE NEWS * * *

    Mr. Jacob Hennessy has founded the Adventurer¡¯s Guild of North America today. Mr. Hennessy was selected to be the first Guild Master by the members of the new guild. Mr. Carlos Mendez is the new assistant guild master. The new Guild Offices are based in Erskine.

    Despite being in existence for less than a day the guild has already been embroiled in controversy. Ms Henrietta Duvalier, citing sexism, has complained that they have not admitted any female members.

    When asked, guild master Hennessy stated the guild would be happy to accept anyone who met their criteria. And that included women.

    * * *

    And here we have Seccotine reporting from Maui.

    On the screen a pretty blond in a blue suit and stiletto heels is seen talking energetically into a mike as her ponytail is blown sideways in the wind. Subtitles are being shown to translate from the French.

    ¡°And today in Maui, the Comte de Champignac was arrested for attempting to leave the island with six viable dinosaur eggs...¡±

    * * *

    A reporter is interviewing a man outside a rather featureless industrial type building. ¡°... Dr Meldrew, what can you tell our viewers about the rumours that NASA is testing a new anti-gravity device. That they actually have a functioning anti-gravity device?¡±

    ¡°All I can say is that the device we are studying here is interesting, and that the material in question does have some unique properties that could possibly be described as defying gravity. It is not the device but the material that has these intriguing qualities. And our institute is demanding access to more samples of this intriguing underwater plant.¡±

 Chapter 98

    Mary was hovering in the Gods Realm as she looked down on Parthia. Almost everywhere she looked small pinpricks of light glowed, and they all were in someway connected to her.

    She sensed a presence approaching and smiled, ¡°Hello Ocidon.¡±

    ¡°Hello Mary, what is the problem, you feel so serious.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just,¡± she waved a hand indicating the globe turning beneath her vision, ¡°Sobering. They all ¨C believe. They expect so much and so little. And then there¡¯s this¡ª¡±

    Mary concentrated and a second globe appeared alongside Parthia. Tarifax also held many scattered dots of light glowing brightly. The ratio was somehow different, more believers, less agents.

    Ocidon chuckled ruefully. He examined the new world carefully and he was surprised when he found a scattering of believers, only a few true but he confronted by a choice. Not that the decision was ever in doubt. Ocidon treasured his followers, if he hadn¡¯t he would have been as dead as he sensed the Sea Gods of Tarifax were.

    Smiling ruefully he focused his attention and gathered up his worshipers and grew. ¡°And so it goes Mary. That is one seriously sick world Mary. Was this wise?¡±

    Mary focused on her domain on Tarifax and the waters surrounding it. She shared her vision of all her little purifiers, the micro plants and plankton, the sulphur binders, the clean up crew.

    ¡°Ah, I see. Slow but sure. Will they cover the oceans in time?¡±

    ¡°Maybe, I think so.¡± Mary shifted her attention and the representation of the worlds faded. ¡°I have agreed to meet ¨C Azurea. Do you wish to be present?¡±

    ¡°No. But if you need me just call.¡± Then Ocidon faded from sight and was gone.

    Mary lingered for a few more moments on her own before leaving. And once again this portion of the Gods Realm was empty.

    * * *

    Mary materialised in her temple in the gloomy deep valley, she smiled admiring the carved pillars topped with softly glowing globes that imparted the illusion of a moonlit night to her temple. She floated over the altar and grinned at Drina.

    Drina grinned back, ¡°they¡¯re on their way. Deepsix is having a crisis of conscience. He doesn¡¯t want to let Lara out of sight and he knows he can¡¯t fetch her here. Are you trying to detach him from the blue haired one?¡±

    ¡°No. But maybe to cause him to think twice should he be asked to act against our interests.¡±

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C CREEVAR¡¯S KILLERS * * *

    ¡°Well brother, that was a surprise. Did you know Blue Lagoon already has her own priests?¡± Harrassan asked as he headed back towards their inn with Sreecator.

    ¡°I had received hints but I wasn¡¯t aware it had got this far, no,¡± Sreecator replied as he glanced at the crowd awaiting the brig that was even now traversing the straight between the islands on its way to the port.

    They found a worried looking Deepsix sitting on the beach next to the inn cradling a dormant dungeon core.

    Sreecator looked stunned, he cleared his throat and asked, ¡°Where did you get that Deepsix, and is it what it looks like?¡±

    Deepsix looked round. ¡°Yes. This is Dr Lara Fisher. She was declared Persona non Grata by Blue Lagoon. What¡¯s Persona non Grata?¡±

    ¡°I believe that is officialise for very unwelcome. So what are you doing with her core?¡± asked Harrassan.

    ¡°The high priestess gave her to me and charged me with finding her a suitable place to establish herself. She doesn¡¯t like children and was originally from Earth.¡±

    ¡°And you are one of Azurea¡¯s twiceborn... Right. Never mind, we¡¯ll help you out. I know of a couple of locations that might be suitable,¡± mused Harrassan.

    ¡°Um, Harrassan, the priestess said Mary Silvestre, her goddess would... um, meet with Azurea in her deep water temple at noon. And... to ask you how we could attend as it¡¯s underwater? That is if you think we should.¡±

    Sreecator snorted even as Harrassan nodded thoughtfully and explained. ¡°Well this is probably one of the better locations to find water breathing enchantments and potions. And Deepsix, it is wise for a group like ours to learn as much about the gods as possible so we will attend if allowed. Azurea¡¯s priestess and her acolytes will be there come hell or high water just because Azurea will be present. As for you, you¡¯ll know best.¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Harrassan looked out at the temple in the lagoon. ¡°Well I¡¯ll go and speak to the twins. Ask them to find the things we will need and I¡¯ll get them to add something for you just in case.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C JAKE * * *

    The mail had arrived early today, mind you it consisted of one letter. Jake examined the envelope in his hand as he sipped his first cup of coffee for the day. To his bemusement it was addressed to Guild Master the honourable Jacob Hennessy, C/O Adventurer¡¯s Guild followed by his address.

    Jake used his butter knife to open the envelope.

    ¡°Dear Jacob,

    Congratulations on having founded the Adventurer¡¯s Guild here on Earth. I¡¯m sure you will soon have access to lots of pertinent information thanks to The System.

    My friend, the intelligence behind Alligator Haven has enjoyed your forays into his dungeon and speaks well of you.

    Just to let you know that you are not yet up to venturing into Winter Wolf. The intelligence behind Winter Wolf is not forgiving.

    I suspect you would enjoy Dinosaur Caves but the authorities are currently monopolizing him, and forbidding anyone not cleared by them access.

    There are a further three named, functioning dungeons present on Earth besides myself. I do not feel free to divulge their names, as they have not, as yet, been located.

    Then there are eighteen beings currently transiting. These eighteen if they survive long enough will inevitably set down roots and become functioning dungeons.

    There will be more, after all one never knows when or if someone might just choose ¡°dungeon¡± as his or her race.

    I have taken the liberty of informing the heads of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild on the worlds of Parthia and Tarifax, and I have offered to forward any communication from them to yourselves.

    Wishing you a long life and success in your chosen career,

    Blue Lagoon, dungeon.¡±

    Jake set the letter aside with a snort, poured milk over his cereal and ate his breakfast, got ready and went to work. After the early rush he settled down behind the counter of the 7-Eleven he worked at, and out of curiosity checked with the System. To his shock he had a message acknowledging him as guild master and what looked like endless options with reams of information regarding duties, powers and obligations.

    Jake got through the rest of his shift on autopilot.

    * * *

    The members of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, all six of them sat round the dining table in Wiz¡¯s apartment. They all looked longingly at the small bookcase filled to overflowing with Wiz¡¯s AD&D books and modules.

    Jake placed a letter in front of Carlito. ¡°This came today. I want you all to read it, and while Carlito reads it I want the rest of you to call up the System and query it for Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Then Dungeons, Alligator Haven, Winter Wolf, Dinosaur Caves and Blue Lagoon.¡±

    Carlito started to slowly read the letter. He looked startled, ¡°Is someone having us on bro?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what I thought too. But I never told no one about the name. How would Blue Lagoon know about Alligator Haven?¡±

    Carlito passed the letter to his sister Jinny, who had already regretted agreeing to help them out by joining their guild. She sighed and started reading it.

    After they had all read the letter, even Carlito who had finished reading it after everyone else had finished. Their attempts at ploughing through the system seemed to have left them all shell-shocked.

    Carlito looked round the table. ¡°I quit as Assistant Guild Master. I nominate my sis Jinny. She¡¯s the geek.¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡± complained Jinny.

    ¡°Seconded,¡± said Wiz enthusiastically. ¡°It¡¯ll shut that bitch up if we have Jinny as assistant Guild Master.¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡± objected Jinny.

    Jake grinned, ¡°Let us all welcome our new assistant Guild Master. And Wiz you¡¯re the computer wiz. What did you find out about dungeons from the system?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re all ranked. The ranks seem to denote massive jumps in power. You know, twice as powerful followed by four times as, then eight times and so on.¡±

    Wiz picked up his notepad and glanced at it. ¡°Like the letter said, there are seven dungeons on Earth. Blue Lagoon is the most powerful at Godlike and is classified as an ocean dungeon. Next is one that wasn¡¯t named. It is graded Elite. Winter Wolf next, Veteran and Ice. Another unnamed comes in at Master, followed by another unnamed and Dinosaur Caves both ranked Journeyman. Our Alligator Haven is ranked Apprentice. There are none ranked Novice. I was unable to find anything about people transitioning. And yes, dungeon core IS a race, so some idiot could choose it. And I bet some will.¡±

    Jinny looked up. ¡°I bet the caves under that park in Maui where the extinct creatures are being found is Dinosaur Caves. The feds are all over it just like Blue Lagoon writes. And Winter Wolf fits that clusterfuck in Bismark to a T.¡±

    ¡°So what do we do about that?¡± Carlito pointed to the letter in the middle of the table.

    ¡°Scan it and file the original,¡± suggested Jinny. ¡°And do you still have the envelope Jake. Any clue where it came from?¡±

    Jake pulled a crumpled envelope from his pocket, scanned it and said, ¡°It¡¯s got a return address, a PO Box in Panama City, Florida.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll scan it too, and staple it to the letter before we file it.¡±

    ¡°Are we going to reply? Should we reply and maybe ask for more information?¡± asked Jake.

    ¡°Hell Yeah!¡± agreed Wiz. ¡°And how about trying to contact that girl that seems to be quoted for everything regarding the System. She¡¯s from Hawaii isn¡¯t she?¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary grinned at Tessa and Lissa, She and Tessa picked up pet carriers and made their way down the narrow path to the single storey grey coloured building on Ano Street and went in. Mary grinned at the receptionist. ¡°Got three breedin¡¯ pairs of little ponies here. How would Maui Now like to find them a deservin¡¯ home with a little girl, or boy I guess, who¡¯d love ¡¯em?¡±

    ¡°Hewo,¡± said the green pony, ¡°wanna be fwends with som¡¯on¡¯ nice,¡± said another.

    Things got confused fast and by the time Mary left the station had plenty of material for a scoop.

 Chapter 99

    The temple was busy, as many had come to watch. Creevar¡¯s Killers were there with Azurea¡¯s priestess Falreena. Almost cowering behind were the two acolytes, Falreena¡¯s daughter and her daughter¡¯s best friend. With them floated Deepsix, probably the one most comfortable with floating above the floor of the temple.

    At some distance from this group were the followers of Zoratus the sage, a very uncomfortable Dorados Thunderfist and Lantina Featherbright who felt quite at home under the surface.

    And all on her own among a group of local children lurked Hellianna hoping against hope not to be spotted by Falreena or Deepsix.

    They were greatly outnumbered by Mary¡¯s folk. Facing the crowd in front of the altar floated an odd trio. Alessanndrina the high priestess and two of her bishops, Tomcat and Pete the octopus. Drina grinned and showed off her new accomplishment. Telepathy.

    ? Welcome to Mother¡¯s first Temple. May you enjoy the blessings of the Mother of Monsters. ?

    And with that Mary manifested above her altar, and then Azurea appeared on Creevar¡¯s arm. Zoratus the sage arrived next. Mary looked from one to the other and raised one eybrow.

    ? Welcome to my temple. Creevar this is a pleasant surprise. You an¡¯ your sister do realise this is goin¡¯ to get noticed. Rocks-for-brains is goin¡¯ to be unhappy with the two of you. ?

    ? Teeheehee... Yes I know. But Tarifax is dying and when that happens... well Teeheehee ¡®rocks-for-brains¡¯ is not going to matter. Teeheehee... and that description fits... Teeheehee... Oh dear. ?

    Creevar smiled, ? News of this meeting would have leaked regardless. This way Mirabelarque will know I¡¯ll be standing by my sister. Aren¡¯t you calling Ocidon? ?

    ? If I need him, he¡¯ll come. But this is my affair and not his. So Azurea you believe I can help you with Tarifax. What¡¯s in it for me? ?

    Azurea looked startled. ? Saving a whole world. Karma. ?

    Mary snorted. ? Please don¡¯t joke. I¡¯ll save the oceans and the sea folk on Tarifax. Trying to save the land will be too expensive in life energy an¡¯ manna. Not bleedin¡¯ my folk for strangers. ?

    Creevar narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. ? Surely as a goddess you must see that the good of the world is of prime importance? ?

    ? Pot Kettle. My folk come first, second, an third... ? Then Mary broke out into laughter. ? Good of the world, that¡¯s rich! Only in so far as it affects the wellbein¡¯ of me an¡¯ mine. ?

    ? So why are you expanding onto another world? ? asked Zoratus.

    ? Here I¡¯m the consort. There Ocidon is the consort. An¡¯ we both grow in power. ?

    ? Teeheehee... I can grant you access to some the linked ones on Ambuila, ? offered Azurea.

    ? Take it Ambuila is in trouble too? ?

    ? Yes, unfortunately. But it¡¯s not as bad as Parthia. ? offered Creevar.

    ? So more pullin¡¯ your ... chestnuts out of the fire. Why should I save your hides? Or are you plannin¡¯ to jump ship and leave the New Gods if I get the prime idiots of your back? ?

    ? Teeheehee... That will have to happen at some point. Teeheehee. Oh dear. But not yet. ?

    Several minutes elapsed as the gods studied one another while their followers looked on.

    ? If I helped my sister I believe we could allow you to access Fragatta and Diavlo. Though I don¡¯t think there is anything alive aside from some viruses left on Diavlo. ?

    ? Isn¡¯t Fragatta the iceball? ? Mary shuddered at the thought. ? You sayin¡¯ there¡¯s still some folk alive on Fragatta? ?

    ? Yes, huddled around some volcanoes and volcanic springs, ? confirmed Creevar.

    ? Any of you lot still hangin¡¯ about? ?

    ? No. Even Ice King lost interest. ?

    ? An¡¯ you let ¡¯im come to Parthia and start to do the same? ?

    Creevar gave a rueful smile. ? Well you did point out Mirabelarque has rocks for brains. ? Azurea nodded her agreement.

    Mary stared at them, and then grinned. ? Very well, I¡¯ll lay off you two if you give me access to Ambuila an¡¯ Fragatta. But I give you fair warnin¡¯ I¡¯m goin¡¯ to keep comin¡¯ gunnin¡¯ for the rest of your lot startin¡¯ with Icy an¡¯ Blackbeard. An¡¯ my folk come first. Always. ?

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C ADVENTURER¡¯S GUILD, GARONMOUTH * * *

    Saranas the Assistant Guild Master for the Garonmouth branch of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild was catching up with her correspondenc. She picked up yet another letter, looked at the wax seal holding it closed and stiffened. ¡®Well it was inevitable that the drow would be contacting us in regards to their new goddess. Must be from the Balancer¡¯s church.¡¯

    She carefully eased a knife behind the seal that showed a coiled whip with a leaping dolphin superimposed. This was the first seal she had seen with this design so it would be going into the guild¡¯s collection in the vaults.

    She slid out the letter and scanned it. Really it was almost rude in the way it skipped all the usual flowery greetings and expressions of esteem. Then she read it and then she started again. Finally she finished reading the rather abrupt letter addressed to the guild master of the Adventurers Guild in Garonmouth.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    She shoved her chair back abruptly and made her way to the office of Sofos Ironfist. She barely paused at the door, knocking and entering without waiting for a reply.

    Sofos looked up at her abrupt entrance and his shaggy eyebrows rose. ¡°Problems Saranas?¡±

    Saranas shrugged helplessly, ¡°You tell me Sofos,¡± she answered even as she placed the envelope and letter carefully on his desk.

    * * *

    In a corner of the room, near the ceiling an interested eye watched through a discreet spy hole. Boris the man-rat perked up his ears and awaited events.

    * * *

    Sofos picked up the envelope first, he hummed in approval. On turning it over he looked up at his assistant to be met with an understanding nod.

    Sofos opened the letter, ¡°Mmm, they¡¯re very abrupt. Straight down to business, very dwarven, I approve.¡±

    ¡°To his Excellency the most honourable guild master Sofos Ironfist,

    Sir,

    I wish to solicit your assistance for a new foundation of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.

    As I am sure you are aware several of the dungeons seeded by Azurea in this last year hail from a peculiar world. The world is called Earth or Terra by its inhabitants.

    I wish to inform you that several of us retain links to our former homeworld through our alter egos. I for instance am now the proud owner of powerful dungeons on three worlds and hope to expand onto at least one more world.¡±

    Sofos looked up at his assistant, his eyes wild. He licked his lips and returned his attention to the letter in his hands.

    ¡°Earth was, until Azurea¡¯s meddling, a world almost totally devoid of magic. Science and technology ruled, as in fact they still do. The System is now establishing itself on my former homeworld and it is changing rapidly.

    One of the first true adventurers on Earth; a Mr. Jacob Hennessy has established the first branch of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild on Earth. He and his Assistant Guild Master, a Mr. Carlos Mendez are in need of knowledgeable assistance. I have informed them of the information available through the System but as you are no doubt aware, it is badly organised and worse explained.

    If you wish to help this new and no doubt struggling guild master I will be happy to deliver to him anything you wish to send to Earth along with an appropriate language skill crystal.

    Wishing you a long life and success,

    Mary Silvestre and Trisha, Blue Lagoon.¡±

    Trembling Sofos placed the letter in his out tray. ¡°Three worlds, three Blue Lagoon dungeons. It¡¯s three times larger than we thought even in our worst nightmares.¡±

    * * *

    Up near the ceiling in his rat sized passage Boris grinned and struggled to contain his desire to laugh at the sight of the old dwarf¡¯s agitation.

    * * *

    ¡°What are we going to do about that?¡± Saranas asked pointing at the letter.

    ¡°We kick it upstairs to the world council. And we prepare a pack, you know, everything we would send to a new branch office. I¡¯ll dictate a letter. Then we can wait a couple of days before handing it all in to the temple of Ocidon.¡±

    ¡°To allow the council time to stop it, right.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°But they won¡¯t Sofos. They¡¯re more likely to stick a whole load of tracking enchantments on it so as to learn more about Blue Lagoon.¡±

    ¡°True. But it might work Saranas. I don¡¯t think it will, but it might.¡±

    * * *

    Boris grinned and rubbed his hands with glee.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary was watching the news with her mother when the presenter introduced Dr Leolani Kuno, a child psychologist that consulted for various children¡¯s organisations.

    ¡°... and further all the subjects I or my colleagues have met and spoken to have the vocabulary and cognative ability of a bright five-year-old. These little ponies are not just animals they are people. Loving people who bond strongly with their partners and playmates. They need our help and protection, just like any child. We will have to recognise their needs. They can¡¯t just be sold or given away; there will have to be some sort of adoption service... Slavery is against the law, besides it¡¯s immoral ...¡±

    Mary grinned with satisfaction. ¡°Have to do somethin¡¯ nice for you Dr Kuno. Good luck with your attempts.¡±

    Mary¡¯s mother glanced at her, ¡°What are you up to dear, you didn¡¯t seem to really care for the ponies.¡±

    Mary lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. ¡°Not really, they can defend themselves. They are good at illusion magic and will soon delight their little friends with sparkles, rainbows and the like. They can hide their charges with illusions and scare any aggressors. Then they have minor healing magic. Kids with ponies will tend to be very healthy. I want them recognised as people but only as a precedent. It¡¯s my octopi, my Hapalochlaena sapiens I really want recognised.¡±

    * * *

    Mary had just settled into her Jeep when she felt the intruders. A group of three scuba divers had just entered her domain. She settled her avatar and returned to her core to better examine things. These guys screamed ¡°furtive¡±, well, except for the camera.

    ¡®So who are you? A camera, a bang stick an¡¯ an overconfident one. An¡¯ you are goin¡¯ far too close to my second test plantation. Well I showed ¡¯em my sea serpent for a reason. Time for Kaa to hunt.¡¯

    Kaa stirred. He felt satisfaction. He was going to help his mistress. The muscular fifty meter long water breathing sea snake picked up speed as he headed unerringly for the intruders. The massacre was soon over, the divers had no chance against Kaa. The only survivor of the group was their camera that slowly floated towards the surface.

    Mary thought about it for a moment. If left alone the camera would soon drift quite a way on the current. But it could be traced and that could be problematic. So she had one of her sea wyverns grab it and take it to a point off Big Island¡¯s coast. From there it would surface and be washed ashore. No point wasting the film.

    ? Good work Kaa. Now take one of your friends and the two of you show yourselves to a couple of excursion boats around Big Island. Just briefly mind, then come home. ?

    * * *

    Mary reached again. The Far Voyager was finally ready and her captain Hawai?iloa the Navigator was itching to go exploring. The reinforced liftwood planks had been tested and they worked, not greatly impeded by the thin skin that the Far Voyager needed to maintain atmosphere. The crew had been an headache. Mary, both of them had tried crustaceans only to admit defeat, then they had tried to modify some of the beast folk, but hadn¡¯t been able to make them vacuum resistant. The solution had been to merge the crustaceans exoskeleton to one of the smaller beast folk and creating a hybrid crab man capable of living in vacuum for half an hour while holding his breath or longer if an air supply was added. Mind you they needed a special helmet to protect their eyes and ears.

    The storage devices had fuel for the emergency thrusters, and air, food and drink for the crew. The recycling arrangements had been copied from NASA.

    Tonight was the night. The Far Voyager would be off to visit the moon. Hawai?iloa had insisted on a space suit for himself and he already had an avatar courtesy of Moriarty and Lewis. If he wanted publicity and fame Mary was sure something could be arranged that kept her out of it.

    Now if she could establish a portal on the moon, Lewis would be happy. And he was welcome to it.

    * * *

    Mary¡¯s avatar stretched, and started the Jeep. She backed carefully onto the road and went to collect her protection detail. Not that she needed to for they were already prepared. Time to pay another visit to Pearl for more lessons.

    ¡®Mmm Tod¡¯s getting¡¯ closer. Suspect he still has a few months. Now Dave¡¯s ready to root. He¡¯s only still mobile ¡¯cause of his globe trottin¡¯. If he stops anywhere for more than a week he¡¯ll go dungeon. Got to get in touch with that girl Tammy O¡¯Hare Dave mentioned.¡¯

 Chapter 100

    The temple was still busy, but now that of the four gods only Mary remained, many were leaving.

    Deepsix was the first to leave, he was in a hurry to reclaim the dungeon core that had been entrusted to him.

    Harrassan was deep in thought, he glanced at his brother, ¡°Did it seem to you that the weakest of the four dominated the meeting?¡±

    Sreecator sighed, ¡°Creevar wanted something from her, so he had to go easy. Azurea is desperate. But yes She dominated. This is her main temple after all.¡±

    Harrassan looked at Falreena and her two tag alongs. ¡°Bet they are shaken. It¡¯s not good to see your god almost pleading.¡±

    ¡°My folk first, second and third... No wonder her followers are loyal...¡± murmured Sreecator.

    ¡°And that includes the drow now. And I saw a handful of them in the crowd. No wonder Horaxanna is worried,¡± agreed Harrassan.

    They left followed by a very thoughtful Falreena.

    As soon as Creevar¡¯s Killers had left with Falreena Helliana, rather hesitantly approached the altar. She was encouraged, half pushed by her new friends. ¡°P-please lady goddess, will you let me stay here. I-I don¡¯t want to return to ¨C to Azurea¡¯s temple.¡±

    Mary inspected the girl. She grinned, ¡°So you want to become one of mine?¡±

    ¡°Ye-yes pl-please.¡±

    ¡°So be it. This is goin¡¯ to hurt but it''ll make you fit in. An¡¯ I suspect it wouln¡¯t hurt as much as those bitches have hurt you in the past. Ready?¡±

    Helliana shrank into herself. But gathered courage from the half smile on Mary¡¯s face. She nodded, then her chest hurt and she felt as if she was suffocating. Her friends giggled and produced their fishing knives and removed the sides of her tight dress allowing her new gills to work.

    ¡°Drina see to her. Get her settled with a family that wants a lively girl. And you lot, take her to the portal. She needs to be in Silverton before Deepsix to give him the core he left in her care.¡±

    The giggling kids fled. Mary called after them, ¡°And get her a swimming costume.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C BOAT YARD * * *

    Agents Mitchell and Perez were suddenly wide-awake. The mysterious boathouse¡¯s doors had opened and a misty indistinct something moved out and took station just offshore from the Silvestre Boat Yard. The thing wasn¡¯t that big but the agents could almost distinguish that it had a turret with a short tube in front and it seemed to positively bristle with missile or torpedo launchers.

    Then a barge made its way out and docked at one of the piers. One of the cranes swung into action and swiftly unloaded it. The barge returned to the boathouse and was followed by the misty indistinct well -armed patrol boat look alike.

    The agents were frustrated when their recording instruments just showed a vague grey blur. They weren¡¯t even able to record the boat yard during the time the barge and the armed boat were out.

    They were soon on the line to their superiors and a search warrant was arranged and a fully equipped search party was on its way even before the well laden old army truck left the boat driven by the catman Kent Clarkson with an armed guard and two visitors from another world.

    Mycroft advised Tobias Nelson the CEO of Silver Dolphin Security of the search warrant and when it would be served. Tobias advised his security force. The crocodiles were returned to their cavern, as was the manticore. Everything was made ready to receive the FBI.

    Kent shifted to another route when Mycroft updated him on the FBI¡¯s plans.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary felt wrung out. She, both of her had forced a portal to the world of Fragatta and then they had located a dormant underwater volcano. They had dragged Ocidon along and persuaded him to use an earthquake (Fragattaquake?) to wake it. So now the beep thing had blown its top a la Krakatoa and was enthusiastically spewing magma. This was more than they had intended but at least the ice was gone from their fiery-hearted new dungeon. One good thing ¡¯bout the volcano was the sheer amount of manna the beep thing was putting¡¯ out.

    She, the both of her were a bit put out by Bluey promptly nominatin¡¯ them goddess of the beep thing a la Pele. At least she could now keep it goin¡¯ an¡¯ somewhat in check. And the manna was nice.

    Both of her, no their plans were now going ahead. The first and easiest was the new moss. The dark almost black green moss was growing enthusiastically. It only grew on ice and was edible even if it was rather lacking in nutrition. It was however rich in vitamins and should be useful in preventing scurvy. Several of her walrus shifters were already present as was an underwater liftwood plantation. They would contact the handful of survivors and help spread her moss.

    The second idea was more ambitious. Soon the Neil Armstrong and Yuri Gagarin would be ready to take to space. One of Fragatta¡¯s four moons should be good for a base and then she, they would see if the idea they had got out of that SF book about big orbital mirrors would work in warming the world.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    And if they worked on Fragatta then the Frost King an¡¯ Ice Heart were in for the shock of their ever lovin¡¯ lives. Both Marys grinned nastily.

    She just sincerely hoped she wouldn¡¯t have to become a triple goddess.

    ¡®If it wasn¡¯t for mama an¡¯ Flip I¡¯d have no problems. But havin¡¯ to keep beein¡¯ human takes time. Lots of time. But no way do I want to loose ¡¯em. That would be far worse than splittin¡¯ off a third me. Still I hope we won¡¯t need to do that.¡¯

    ? Hey Mycroft, what have you found ¡¯bout those three names the Blue Haired Cow gave me? ?

    ? Well you already know about Tammy O¡¯Hare the Australian girl. Then I¡¯ve found James Hu from Singapore. We are researching him. And Catherine Hamada from Portland, Oregon, I suspect you¡¯ll like her and she¡¯ll go gaga over your Manga Dungeon. She¡¯s a complete Otaku. ?

    * * *

    After resting a bit and separating her mind from the other her she turned her attention to her intrepid explorer. She touched his mind feeling his welcome. Hawai?iloa the Navigator was bubbling with enthusiasm and excitement. Mary realised the Far Voyager was floating over the site of the Apollo 11 landing. Sensing her mild interest Hawai¡¯iloa took the Far Voyager round again to see the various relics.

    Neither of them had the faintest idea of the consternation they were causing on Earth. More and more observatories focused their attentions on the silvery Far Voyager. Especially as it was obvious that the spaceship was maintaining altitude without the use of rockets.

    Finally the Far Voyager moved away from the Apollo landing site and headed towards the lunar west until it passed into the lunar night. But the Earthside observatories kept tracking it due to Earthlight. They watched the Far Voyager land near the centre of the Oceanus Procellarum.

    Mary grinned as Hawai¡¯iloa assumed his avatar, donned his spacesuit and was the first to step out onto the Moon. Then he supervised his crew as they removed the steel airtight small container from the hold and placed it on the moon¡¯s surface. Then Hawai¡¯iloa invoked the talisman that was in the container. Mary concentrated and, after spending more manna than she had expected to need, managed to open the portal. She immediately handed it over to Lewis.

    She felt Lewis¡¯ triumph and sensed something of his plans.

    ? Now, now Lewis, none of that, no pyramids. And I mean it, no pyramids. Wouldn¡¯t object to a fairytale castle mind you. Let¡¯s not give any more traction to von D?niken an¡¯ his ilk. ?

    ? Aww! ... It shall be as you order Mother. One Disney type castle coming right up. ?

    ? Huh, Men! ?

    * * *

    Mary glanced at her phone before answering. ¡°Afternoon Dr. DeBlasio.¡±

    ¡°Mary what do you know of these creepy little ponies? And I keep telling you, call me Michaela.¡±

    ¡°Know a few things. Why?¡±

    ¡°Because that idiot TV station gave a pair to a little girl on the terminal ward and while she seemed better for their presence, now she¡¯s frantic because the ponies are listless and seem unwell.¡±

    ¡°Oh beep! You¡¯ve got to give ¡¯em honey, ¡¯bout a jar each every six hours or so. Syrup will work but not as well. Sugared water might do if you can¡¯t get hold of honey. Royal jelly as a supplement would be good but only once a day. And stop dosin¡¯ ¡¯em when the kid¡¯s healthy an¡¯ they don¡¯t have to use all their manna and life force in their healing.¡±

    ¡°Seems like you know more than a bit about them Mary. Truly, they can cure terminal cancer?¡±

    ¡°Maybe. I hadn¡¯t thought their healing abilities strong enough. But if they¡¯re tag teamin¡¯ an¡¯ willin¡¯ to give their lives to effect a cure, then just maybe. She must be nice for ¡¯em to bond like that.¡±

    ¡°She must be nice...?¡± Michaela thought about that for a second or two. ¡°What else are those creatures doing to their owners?¡±

    ¡°Partners, friends not owners. Not tellin¡¯. Sorry. Oh, an¡¯ don¡¯t worry if the girl starts regrowing any bits you lot may have removed.¡±

    ¡°... I¡¯ve got to go save my new patients. But you haven¡¯t heard the last of this Mary. Expect a visit from Cas and me. And I suspect Tina¡¯s oncologist will be just as interested. And why didn¡¯t you tell people your creations need honey.¡±

    ¡°¡¯Cause they don¡¯t. Not usually. You really wouldn¡¯t like to be around one of ¡¯em on a sugar high.¡±

    ¡°... I knew it. You did make them.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, So?¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C IN THE NEWS * * *

    It¡¯s confirmed, sea serpents seem to have colonised the seas off Hawaii. Several excursion boats have seen and recorded the creatures. From studying the films two individuals have been identified. The larger of the two seems to be about fifty meters long; the other is about ten meters shorter. Scientists are preparing to tag these animals.

    In a more worrying development a marine camera that was washed up on a beach on Hawaii shows one of these creatures killing and eating two scuba divers. They seem to keep to deep waters.

    * * *

    Another end of the world prophecy has come from Pastor Zachariah Beddows. The pastor claims that his study of the bible tells him that the world will end next year at noon EST on the 13<sup>th</sup> of March. He cites the appearance of the diabolical blue screens and the System that he claims is another aspect of the Devil.

    When asked about his previous assertion that the World would end, he admitted that he had made a mistake in his interpretation of one of the passages he had relied on but that this time he was one hundred per cent sure of his interpretation.

    * * *

    A UFO has been observed floating over the near side of the moon. It showed interest in the Appolo landing site and it has landed close to the middle of the Oceanus Procellarum. The aliens seem to be building something on the moon.

    The US, Russia and China are all urgently preparing lunar missions to study this visitor to our solar system. Most of the space capable powers are preparing probes for immediate launch. We are certain manned missions will follow.

    * * *

    And now from Bismark, North Dakota we have General Smyth. The camera panned across a scene of devastation. Three smoking destroyed tanks could be seen amongst the rubble and destroyed bunkers.

    ¡°We have seized the surface installations of this the Winter Wolf dungeon. Yes you heard correctly. The System has confirmed that what happened here was the birth of a dungeon. If you want more information please access the government website regarding the changes that have been changing or world and search for dungeons.¡±

    General Smyth looked grim, ¡°Alternatively the System has some information about dungeons available for anybody who cares to search for it. In short, somewhere down there...¡± the general pointed at a ragged hole in the ground, ¡°Is an inhuman, and in this case, malignant intelligence that controls monsters, traps and remote weapons to defend itself. It feeds on lives and gives out bribes to entice the foolish or suicidal to enter.

    ¡°We will be building a temporary base on this location to control the entrance to this dungeon until we are able to destroy it.¡±

 Chapter 101 â€“ (Earth and Earth Mary)

    * * * EARTH ¨C MEADOWS * * *

    Meadows dropped into his favourite armchair. He looked exhausted after his trip to Washington DC. He looked up to find those members of his team who were present looking sympathetic.

    ¡°Save your sympathies for yourselves. The Congress has finally realised that almost no one is paying attention to their blame games given what¡¯s happening. Thus the meeting I was summoned to. For round two they are planning on a special congressional hearing and they plan to invite a number of experts, both official establishment figures and independents. They want to interview James Moriarty, the elusive hacker Mycroft and Mary among others.¡±

    ¡°But Mary¡¯s only seventeen,¡± exclaimed Tod.

    ¡°I doubt most of them realise, and those that do can¡¯t care less if it will get them on the news,¡± explained Meadows.

    Tod thought about it, turning over in his head everything he knew that he hoped Meadows did not. ¡°I suppose Moriarty can be served but how can anyone get hold of Mycroft?¡±

    Meadows looked at him with a certain degree of speculation, ¡°What do you know of Mycroft Tod?¡±

    ¡°He... Well I think it¡¯s he, I¡¯ve only come across Mycroft online. I think he handles Mary¡¯s online presence, or lack of it.¡±

    ¡°Well if you know that much, it is probably more than the CIA. Any idea who he is? Any idea at all?¡± asked Meadows as he slowly came alert.

    Tod bit his lip and thought. ¡°No, not really. He¡¯s a vague online presence.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C MIKE SILVESTRE * * *

    Mike felt like tearing his hair out. He glared at his boss, ¡°This sucks. What kind of masochist do you think I am? If Garfield wants to keep his wunderkind fine! But I¡¯ll be damned if I spend another week at triple time trying to bail the moron out of a mess of his own making.¡±

    ¡°Now, now Mike, you know you and your team can do it. After all it¡¯s only fixing a few bugs.¡±

    ¡°A few bugs! A few! No fucking way. I refuse to touch that pile of...¡± Mike drew a deep breath and tried to calm down. He looked at his boss and his smug self-satisfied look was the last straw. ¡°I Quit! I QUIT! I¡¯ll even pay the bloody penalty but I¡¯m out of here now.¡±

    With that he left his former boss¡¯ office slamming the door and stormed back to his desk where he grabbed his things, scribbled a brief note and left.

    Oscar drifted over to his friend¡¯s desk and glanced at the note on the desk, he shook his head and returned to his desk. He was back at his computer when the office manager came into the room. ¡°Where¡¯s Mike?¡±

    ¡°He grabbed a few things and stormed out Ms Dawkins,¡± replied someone near the door.

    Dawkins made her way to the empty desk and picked a note that had a cheque stapled to it. She read it with a grimace. She walked over to Cindy. ¡°Cindy, any chance you can change Mike¡¯s mind about resigning. Garfield¡¯s a vindictive so and so and he¡¯ll blacklist Mike for leaving the company at a critical time.¡±

    Cindy looked up at Dawkins blankly. ¡°Mike Quit? Why?¡±

    ¡°Young needs help to get the latest project ready on time.¡±

    ¡°What? Again? Then no, not a chance in hell Ms Dawkins. Last time was bad enough; we had to redo the whole thing. I can phone him but I already know what he¡¯ll say.¡±

    ¡°Do so please. Tell him about Garfield¡¯s threat. If he quits after fixing Young¡¯s project then there should be no problems.¡±

    During the lunch break Oscar and Cindy got together.

    ¡°So, what did Mike have to say?¡±

    ¡°Mary is willing to bankroll us for a couple of months, and that computer is ours to use. Moriarty knows of a couple of projects. Nothing major but...¡±

    ¡°You know what, I think I¡¯ll be joining him. I have no desire to have to handle another of the wunderkind¡¯s messes.¡±

    Cindy looked at her soggy burrito with distaste. ¡°Me too.¡±

    Cynthia Dawkins looked at the two neatly typed resignation letters with attached cheques and felt dismay. Their three best programmers had quit. There was now no chance their new flagship project could be salvaged in house. Garfield was going to refuse to hire contractors, as that would reflect badly on him and his prot¨¦g¨¦e.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Cynthia dug out her CV and set to updating it. Then she went in to see Garfield.

    * * *

    Cindy and Oscar found Mike in the kitchen of his home staring in bemusement at a official looking letter. He looked up and gave a rueful grin. ¡°So we¡¯re all committed.¡±

    ¡°Yes Mike, I believe you said there were a couple of small jobs on hand,¡± said Oscar.

    ¡°Small. Yes, but... Here take a look. I have to phone Mary. She¡¯s not going to be happy.¡± Mike placed a bulging folder on the kitchen table.

    Cindy opened it and started going through it. Her eyes grew wider as she worked her way through it. Oscar seeing her reaction started to go through it too. Soon both were completely absorbed.

    Mike looked at his phone for a long moment then he hit the autodial for Mary. ¡°Hello Mary. Have you heard about the latest congressional committee? Well they want you to testify.¡±

    ¡°What? Oh, yeah papa, Mycroft¡¯s told me ¡¯bout it. They¡¯re due to have a few problems. Bet they¡¯ll put things off for a bit. Goin¡¯ to plead school.¡±

    Cindy looked up and listened to the end of the conversation. When Mike closed the connection she said, ¡°Mike, this isn¡¯t small. Is Mary planning to go into competition with NASA?¡±

    Mike looked uncomfortable, ¡°Um...¡±

    Cindy¡¯s mouth dropped open as a thought surfaced. ¡°She is! That UFO.... No that¡¯s not pos¡ª Mike?¡±

    Mike looked guilty as he passed over a couple of folders. ¡°Not able to say anything, but those are the contracts Mycroft wants you to sign, and the NDAs.¡±

    Oscar scanned the contract. He fumbled out a pen and signed it. Then he did the same with the NDA.

    Cindy watched Oscar, then read her contract. She looked up at Mike. ¡°Can your daughter afford this?¡±

    Mike nodded slowly. ¡°You¡¯ve heard of Magitech Inc haven¡¯t you? Well that¡¯s one of ours too. I can tell you more after the NDA.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary grinned down at the slim young black haired woman, she for her part looked up at Mary. ¡°Ready to face the ravening mob out there? Sorry ¡¯bout the ponies, they seem to have stirred things up to a fever pitch. Any preference in regards to a name?¡±

    The young woman all but rubbed her hands with glee. ¡°This is going to be so much fun Mary. How about Lane Loisdottir? To go with Kent Clarkson.¡± Lane giggled.

    ¡°So be it. Lane Loisdottir it shall be.¡± Manna swirled briefly and Lane blinked in surprise. ¡°You know what you have to do.¡±

    ¡°Yes Mother. Face your public and give them the run-around. Screen poor old Mycroft so he can do his job uninterrupted and to feed the world press interesting stories.¡±

    ¡°Yep, just make sure they have at least a grain of truth.¡± Mary grinned. ¡°Distract ¡¯em. Give me a couple of years an¡¯ we¡¯ll be untouchable.¡±

    Lane inclined her head to one side and raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow, ¡°That long, bet we¡¯ll be untouchable in one.¡±

    ¡°Hope so, but one year isn¡¯t very long.¡±

    ¡°First thing though, Mycroft an¡¯ Moriarty have been diggin¡¯ up a lot of dirt on the members of the congressional committee that wants me to testify. Add innuendos, massage the story a bit; then tell Mycroft where to send them. Figure the committee will be too busy to bother me for a bit.¡±

    ? An¡¯ Tessa you still willin¡¯ to see that overly ambitious self seekin¡¯ chairman commits suicide when all the sordid details come out? ?

    ? Yes Mother, it¡¯ll be fun. ?

    * * *

    The diamond core at the bottom of the sea flickered as it surveyed its domains. The two Marys plotted even as they merged and updated each other. Finally they parted again and one of them reached out to Moriarty.

    ? Go ahead. Buy that restaurant. Close it and throw in the decorators. I¡¯ll divert Kent and alert Lewis. It¡¯s sooner than I wanted but we need an outpost in DC. I¡¯ll get a pride to run it and a clan of man-rats to infiltrate. Victoria¡¯s agreed to have a twin sister to run the clan. ?

    ? But you need some exotic cuisine, the place was popular before the latest owner ran it into the ground. ?

    ? I plan to cheat Mycroft. It¡¯ll be exotic. Guests will be asked to guess what cuisine they¡¯re eating. I will profit from the upheaval Frog¡¯s Arena of Blood caused in Conimbriga. Lots of places have been closed by the council and I¡¯m sure I can buy suitable staff from the Caradix Emporium. They¡¯ll get their freedom, a history an¡¯ papers thanks to you an¡¯ Moriarty. Any cooks an¡¯ staff that can impress the snobs from Conimbriga should be able to do the same in DC. ?

    ? Lion ¡¯folk? Are you sure high society in DC is up to that? ?

    ? No. That¡¯s why I¡¯ll go with lion shifters this time. What do you think to Red Moon as a name? ?

    ? Why are you so fond of lions when it comes to restaurants and inns? ?

    ? It works. They¡¯re family an¡¯ close knit. The males are real tough an¡¯ good at fightin¡¯ an¡¯ the females work well together. Works. ?

    * * *

    ? So Lewis how¡¯s your moon enterprise goin¡¯? ?

    ? Why Mary, it is going well. The reduced gravity is allowing me to create a real fairy tale castle with tall elegant towers and spires. I like the conical roofs. They¡¯re useful for making the place airtight. Wonderland on the moon is coming together nicely. ?

    ? Alice havin¡¯ fun? ?

    ? Yes. ? Lewis laughed softly. ? And those crab ¡¯folk are a marvel. How are they able to take all that radiation without taking damage? ?

    Mary blanked out for a moment in surprise. ? But I gave you the templates an¡¯ the schemata. How come you don¡¯t know? It¡¯s somethin¡¯ I¡¯ve been workin¡¯ on. I¡¯ll soon be able to upgrade all my folk. ?

    ? Mary, Mary I¡¯m a literary chap, not a biologist or geneticist. ?

    ? Huh! ¨C Oh well, is Hawai¡¯iloa ready to resume his travels? ?

    ? Yes, he¡¯s getting downright boring about Mars. Are you sure that¡¯s a good idea? And can you open a portal that far away. Why not open one on the Far Voyager? ?

    ? Can I? Yes. Is it worth doin¡¯? Now that we¡¯ll have to see, it¡¯ll be very expensive in manna an¡¯ I have a lot on my plate at the moment. As for a portal on the Far Voyager, not possible, the portals require a predictable motion, therefore when the Far Voyager changes course or acceleration the portal would fail. ?

    ? I¡¯d like to visit Mars, ? said Lewis wistfully.

    ? Tell you what. You build up a reserve of manna an¡¯ we¡¯ll use that for the portal. ¡¯K? ?

    ? Yes Mother! ?

    ? So you ready for the rover that NASA has on the way? ?

    Lewis laughed and Alice said, ? Yes! Crabmen on the moon and card soldiers on the parapets, with the white rabbit to receive it and lead it to the queen of hearts, it is going to be so much fun. ?

 Chapter 102

    Helliana and her new friends were playing with a pod of dolphins in the lagoon. They were tossing two brightly coloured balls around and making a surprising amount of noise. Deepsix watched from the beach and despaired of making himself noticed.

    Harrassan grinned at the sight of the frustrated twiceborn. He stood back as Falreena trailed as ever by her two satellites approached.

    Falreena having spotted Deepsix and Harrassan joined them on the shore, wincing at the shriller squeals of joy coming from the chaotic mess of dolphins and children in the lagoon. She smiled wistfully at the sight, she couldn¡¯t remember the last time she had seen anything even remotely like it, certainly not in her lady¡¯s temple. ¡°When are we leaving Harrassan? And have you seen the little pest?¡±

    Deepsix turned to look at Falreena, ¡°Helliana is in the middle of that lot,¡± he said pointing to the children.

    Harrassan chuckled, ¡°There will be a ship leaving in about two hours. The next will leave tomorrow. I suspect we¡¯ll be on the one leaving today.¡±

    Falreena stared, ¡°When did the brat learn to swim like that?¡±

    ¡°Probably when she was changed,¡± suggested Harrassan. ¡°I fear you and Azurea have lost her.¡±

    ¡°Changed...¡± said Falreena blankly.

    ¡°Yes changed ¨C haven¡¯t you noted that all the children out there have gills and move in a very ¨C um, strange way in the water? No flailing, they flow,¡± Deepsix explained. ¡°And how am I supposed to get her attention.¡±

    ¡°Oh that¡¯s easy,¡± said Harrassan. ¡°HELLIANA DEEPSIX WANTS YOU!¡± he bellowed.

    The play quieted for a moment as everyone looked towards the shore. Helliana draped an arm over the back of one of the dolphins and they made for the shore. Helliana waded until she was standing near the shore. She removed a belt with an oilskin wrapped pouch and offered it to Deepsix. ¡°Here she is Deepsix. I wish you both luck.¡±

    Deepsix reached out and took the offered belt, ¡°Thank you Helliana.¡± Then he unwrapped the pouch and checked inside. He smiled and stepped back away from the shore. ¡°Good luck with your new life.¡±

    Helliana smiled blindingly, then she took one step back, standing slightly deeper in the water of the lagoon. She curtseyed, which looked distinctly odd given how she was clad and where she was standing. ¡°Lady priestess, I must inform you that I will be staying here when you leave. I¡ªI like it here, It¡¯s not because of you lady, you¡¯ve kind of ignored us runners and the other orphans entrusted to the temple, but, but the Matron¡¯s mean, and, and Belatranda is too, she just doesn¡¯t care. So I¡¯m staying here where I¡¯m welcome. Bye.¡±

    With that Helliana turned and took a few running-splashing steps before diving back into the lagoon, disappearing from sight.

    * * * EARTH & TARIFAX ¨C REDMOON PRIDE * * *

    Silvia Redmoon stretched and twisted, glorying in her body. She shared a grin with her sister Jade. They hugged excitedly and then examined the things that had been left for them. On leaving the cavern they bumped into Kaikane. He promptly gathered them both in a fierce hug. After some babbling they continued walking down the passage, Kaikane in the middle with an arm around each of their shoulders.

    They finally arrived at a comfortable room. They found it already occupied by a small brown haired woman with a prominent nose. Unlike the three newcomers who were wearing jeans and t-shirts she was wearing a knee length grey skirt and loose ivory coloured blouse.

    Mary appeared and smiled a welcome. ¡°Vicky, these are Kaikane and his ladies Silvia an¡¯ Jade. They are the joint heads of the Redmoon pride. You will be workin¡¯ together in Washington DC. Vicky will be in charge of intelligence gathering and the Redmoon pride will be providing cover an¡¯ defence.¡±

    Mary allowed them to talk for a while before once again claiming their attention.

    ¡°Silvia, I want you to visit Conimbriga on Tarifax. Take who you will with you when you visit the Caradix Emporium. I figure your restaurant will need exotic fare and well trained staff used to handling the self important types that proliferate near the centres of power. Conimbriga has had three top class restaurants an¡¯ one of its best hotels closed down by the council after the arena of blood affair. Suspect that the prime chefs will have been snapped up by now but you should be able to get some good people. An¡¯ we will be able to free ¡¯em which I kinda like. If you pick up too many, so be it, we can open another place. Your pride¡¯ll be big enough.¡±

    = = O = =

    Footman XVII watched through the observation port as the big blocky firewaggon stopped in front of the main entrance of the Caradix Emporium. Four figures emerged and made their way to the entrance. He noted that two were walking confidently in front of the group with the big one lurking just behind them in typical bodyguard fashion. The last seemed to blend with the fog.

    Footman XVII picked up the speaking tube and said, ¡°Party coming, looks like two principals with bodyguard and a rogue or thief. Big firewaggon.¡± Then he made his way to the entrance and awaited their entrance, ignoring as always the actions of the door boys.

    Sales XI briefly checked himself in the mirror before making his way to main reception. He bowed when Footman XVII showed the new clients in. He checked them out visually. The two women looked to the buyers, they looked to be related. Their clothing was too closely cut and left their hands free so they were not society ladies and did not desire to be taken for such. Big and muscular, they were probably ex adventurers then. So handle with care. The bodyguard was alert, a really big bruiser.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    ¡®Damn, that thief¡¯s good, I almost overlooked her and she¡¯s wearing silk. Flowing sleeves, just the tips of her fingers showing, loose well cut blouse... Now there lies the real danger... Noble in disguise with two decoys out front... Careful eleven.¡¯

    Sales XI made a slight sign to Runner XXIV, smiled politely and said, ¡°How may the Caradix Emporium serve you my ladies?¡±

    Silvia looked round in pretend appreciation and smiled back, ¡°We are hoping to save something of our trip to Conimbriga. It appears we arrived at a bad time, we were told to be sure to visit the Lamprey and Rills. But the Council closed them. We were booked to stay at the Fellows Hotel but they closed that too. Then the Drowned Dove is no more. Most of the research we were planning on for the family¡¯s newest restaurant is impossible. But Vicky suggested we might be able to acquire their kitchen staff as the council usually dumps confiscated slaves at this the premier slave emporium.¡±

    Sales XI set himself to gather the few crumbs of useful information from this verbal haemorrhage smiled inwardly. Played correctly he had a big sale on his hands. He noted Sales IV¡¯s arrival with relief and saw that he had come to the same conclusion as himself.

    Sales XI ushered his still talking customer and her entourage into one of the larger private display rooms, as he did so he noted with appreciation the way Sales IV approached the noble lady.

    = = O = =

    A good three hours later in a crowded bus Silvia chugged the bottle of beer with relief, ¡°Ahhh! That¡¯s better, I haven¡¯t spoken that much... ever! My mouth was so dry.¡± She looked at the bottle in her hand, ¡°This stuff¡¯s not bad. Not bad at all.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you think you went overboard sis? Four apprentice chefs, the apprentices of the snapped up chefs. Waiters, reception workers, kitchen workers,¡± joked Jade.

    ¡°No, Mother did tell us we could always open another place, and some of these people might want to bail. And what are that motley lot you picked up Vicky?¡±

    ¡°Intelligence for Rich and Mother.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C HOUSTON * * *

    It was a seemingly peaceful scene that belied the tension and frustration of all present. Everyone was busy tracking the unidentified spacecraft that had just taken off from the moon.

    They watched as it continued to ignore all attempts at communication and now it seemed to be heading for Mars.

    ¡°Still no new sign of reaction mass use, no wait, there we go, they seem to use small rockets to manoeuvre. Resending communications protocol.¡±

    Then with a faint crackle a male voice erupted from their speakers. ¡°Radio! Mais quel genre de primitives utilisent la radio? Je sais, Je sais, un et un est deux, deux et deux sont quatre ... et puis?¡±

    There was a stunned silence in the room. Then several people started babbling before the voice resumed.

    ¡°Donc vous ne parlez pas fran?ais? La derni¨¨re fois que nous ¨¦tions ici, le Fran?es ¨¦tait la langue diplomatique.¡±

    Silence resumed, another brief crackle came from the speakers, followed by, ¡°Apr¨¨s tout, qu¡¯arrive-t-il au roi Louis XV?¡±

    Silence reigned for a long moment, then the mission director asked plaintively, ¡°What did they say, that sounded ... familiar somehow.¡±

    ¡°Err... I think they¡¯re saying ¡®Only err... backwards societies still use radio. We know how to count, can¡¯t you speak French? The last time we were here French was the language of diplomacy¡¯. And, and ... ¡®What happened to Louis XV?¡¯.¡±

    ¡°You speak French Bailey? Get on the mike, someone give him the script. Come on Bailey start talking.¡±

    ¡°Um... My French isn¡¯t very good, I can kind of understand it but I¡¯m not good at speaking...¡±

    ¡°Mandy, get me a French speaker ASAP. And Bailey, get talking. Badly is better than the rest of us. You can stop when we get a Fr¡ª French speaker to take over.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Michaela got out of Dr Gullwing¡¯s car. She looked dubiously at the cat man holding the sign with her name. He, noticing her looked asked, ¡°Dr Michaela DeBlasio?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but I was expecting Mary.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s feeling hunted at the moment, I¡¯m here to take you to her, she¡¯ll be passing in the Storm Dolphin shortly. She¡¯ll stop and you can go aboard. Dropping you off should be easier.¡±

    Minutes later they were heading out to sea, and in due time they saw the bow wave of the Storm Dolphin closing rapidly. It slowed and stopped, Michaela and Gullwing clambered aboard. As soon as they were settled Lissa opened the throttle and they drew away from a couple of boats that had left the dock when they had spotted the Storm Dolphin approaching. Lissa took them straight out to sea.

    Mary swung her chair round to look at them and said, ¡°Hello Michaela, I take it this is Dr Gullwing the oncologist.¡±

    Michaela squinted, ¡°Mother of Monsters and Blackbeard¡¯s Bane? Interesting titles you have there Mary.¡±

    Mary grinned, ¡°See you¡¯ve been levelin¡¯. Congrats. The latter doesn¡¯t really apply on Earth.¡±

    Michaela snorted. ¡°Gordon, this is Mary Silvestre who I suspect, created the little ponies. Mary this is Dr. Gordon Gullwing.¡±

    ¡°Please call me Gordon. Lovely speedboat you have here Mary. And Tina is making a complete recovery. Michaela suggested you could explain.¡±

    ¡°Explain? Look I added healin¡¯ ability to them along with a bonding affinity. I personally don¡¯t have a healin¡¯ ability though I can use DNA to regrow or fix creatures includin¡¯ people. Added a bit of that too. Look it¡¯s magic. I¡¯m not into the theory of magic so I can¡¯t really explain. I do have the ponies you asked for. By the way, I thought Cas was comin¡¯.¡±

    ¡°She wanted to. But she¡¯s been dragged of to consult about flying jellyfish.¡±

    ¡°Oh those. They don¡¯t fly, they fill themselves with hydrogen and float at the mercy of the wind.¡±

    Michaela stared flatly. She frowned, ¡°Mary, what?¡±

    Mary lifted one shoulder briefly, ¡°Mother of Monsters,¡± she explained. Tessa giggled as she carefully deposited two pet carriers on the deck near Michaela.

    ¡°Intelligent octopi...¡±

    ¡°Hapalochlaena sapiens,¡± interjected Mary.

    ¡°...Flying jellyfish, intelligent ponies. And what else Mary?¡±

    ¡°This an¡¯ that.¡±

    Gordon filed the conversation for future contemplation and watched the armed leopard girl place two further pet carriers next to the first. ¡°I note two have wings, and two appear to be unicorns.¡±

    ¡°Well you have four controls. I suspect the healin¡¯ ability took better with the ¡¯corns. Which is bizarre if true, I¡¯ll leave it to you to find out. I strongly suspect the ponies will only be willin¡¯ an¡¯ able to work with kids.¡±

    ¡°What about adults Mary?¡± asked Gordon.

    ¡°I can see ¡¯bout creatin¡¯ something that will be willin¡¯ to work with adults. But I have other things to do first.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C IN THE NEWS * * *

    Paris is celebrating today. The alien visitor has been speaking to various agencies in French and it has gained quite a following here in France.

    * * *

    Naturalists have tracked the flying jellyfish recently seen floating over Galveston. They have been named Chrysaora volans. It is now certain that they evolved from Chrysaora chesapeakei. Scientists are almost certain that these creatures are an artificial creation.

    They are very effective at absorbing and metabolizing oil spills. They transform the oil into hydrogen and incredibly tough and lightweight carbon sheets.

    When the hydrogen finally escapes the creatures react in one of three different ways. If they land in the sea they resume their existence as jellyfish. In freshwater they divide into six smaller creatures and attempt to make their way back to the sea. On land they again separate into six creatures but in this situation they form polyps and anchor themselves and await rain to shed their eggs.

 Chapter 103

    * * * EARTH ¨C KENT CLARKSON * * *

    Kent parked Mother¡¯s truck near the first pier and watched as the small guardhouse disguised as a crate was lifted onto the truck¡¯s bed and safely secured. While Rupert double-checked the fastenings Kent watched as the barge docked. He went to meet the emissaries from the Tarifax Adventurer¡¯s Guild.

    ¡®Well according to Lewis the dark elf is safe, he¡¯s one of Mother¡¯s followers. The gnome on the other hand is at the very least sympathetic to the tinkerer. Well here they come, um, she looks a bit green, surely she can¡¯t be seasick?¡¯ mused Kent to himself.

    Kent smiled and inclined his head, ¡°Welcome to Earth, I¡¯m Kent Clarkson and I¡¯ll be escorting you to the first chapter of the local guild. I¡¯m afraid it is a fairly long trip and Mother¡¯s truck is not the most comfortable of vehicles.¡±

    Swiftfall Sunhigh grinned and offered his hand. They shook. Fidget for her part quickly recovered her colour once the ground was no longer moving. She stared in fascination at the crane, as it swung the crates they were escorting from the barge to the open rear of the, the vehicle, for it was not a firewagon. There was no boiler or pistons and no coal.

    Then they were on their way. Kent grinned at the looks of stupefaction on the faces of his passengers. The drow couldn¡¯t take his eyes of the passing scenery while the gnome lass kept swivelling her head to watch all the assorted vehicles they passed, That is when she wasn¡¯t fascinated by their truck, his mobile phone and other simple gadgets.

    Also both seemed staggered at the sheer number of people and lack of monsters and bandits.

    * * * EARTH ¨C K¨©LAUEA * * *

    Albert Monckton prepared for his meditation. He just knew it would work this time, hadn¡¯t he been accepted by The All. He had selected Mystic. It was glorious. He settled himself on the slopes of K¨©lauea and started his meditation.

    ¡®It was working,¡¯ he thought excitedly, and then it wasn¡¯t. He forced himself to calm down and resumed his breathing exercises.

    The scene seemed to shimmer before his eyes, and everything looked to be more alive. Small flames seemed to flit around, investigating rocks, circling him. He could almost swear they were giggling.

    Then something startled them and they fled post haste towards the crater. A big woman surrounded by a bluish haze emerged from the sea and walked ashore. Where she stepped she left puddles of water.

    And then an old white haired woman with a white dog was standing on the slopes. The two met, and talked. Finally the old woman handed the young one a fiery spark. Albert assumed it was a fire spirit of some type. The young woman seemed to juggle it while steam came boiling off her.

    Then the young woman gestured and a rift opened in the sky above her, allowing Albert to see a magnificent volcano spewing fire and lava, surrounded by water, and what seemed like an endless vista of ice. He saw the young woman fly through he rift and release the spark into the volcano before diving into the sea.

    The spark danced in the crater and transformed itself into a fiery skinned woman with black hair. She waved and blew a kiss to the old woman on the slopes of K¨©lauea before the rift closed.

    Then Albert knew no more until he woke with the dawn, cold and uncomfortable. Albert dragged himself to his feet, aching in every joint. Out of habit he checked his system log and froze, shocked. Somehow he had gone from Mystic lvl 2 to Mystic lvl 8 overnight, and he¡¯d gained a Fire affinity.

    He started scanning all his accumulated system messages hoping for some clarification.

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary¡¯s arms and hands hurt. She resisted the call of her backup core long enough to see the fire girl, who she suspected to be one of the Hi¡¯iaka, settle in the volcano. At this point Mary stopped resisting the pull and sank into her backup core on Fragatta.

    It took many long moments for the pain to ease, then she found herself on the Gods Plane. It seemed cramped, dirty, and uncomfortable. She found herself in what appeared to be a dirty room with an over elaborate throne. It was¡ª it felt like a straight jacket. Manna was present but it was pooled, stagnant. And the throne was hers to claim; somehow she knew this.

    ¡®No, if this is goin¡¯ to be my stretch of the Gods Realm on Fragatta then things have just gotta change. Got to have the sea, a beach, combers an¡¯ such. So...¡¯

    With a moue of distaste Mary grabbed the pooling manna and blasted it outward, shattering the walls and roof of the chamber and condemning them to oblivion. A sand fringed spur came into being the ocean pounding one side, the bay side washing the beach with small ripples.

    ¡®Better. But that over elaborate piece of junk just has to go.¡¯

    Grabbing some manna from her reserve Mary obliterated the throne that had taken up residence as far from the sea as it was possible to go. Something tugged at her, somehow she knew a throne was needed, and it had to be visible and allow interaction with land and air dwellers.

    She frowned, and then concentrated anew. A not so simple throne started to materialize in the shallows of her very own private bay. It felt unbalanced. Something was missing. Then it dawned on her, she was two in one, so the throne split, and then there were two identical thrones sitting side by side in shallows of the bay. The design simplified itself under her critical gaze, while carvings of assorted sea life spread across them.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    * * *

    On Parthia Mary felt the call of her core, worried she released her avatar and settled herself into it intent on discovering the reason for the call. However, no sooner was she settled than she was projected into the Gods Realm of ... Fragatta. She found herself sitting on one of twin thrones besides herself. They, no she merged with herself and truly became the two in one.

    They contemplated the recent past and relaxed, grateful that they had managed to foist of the volcano onto some other poor sucker. The fire affinity it had inflicted on them had been uncomfortable, destabilising.

    Then she/they felt annoyed. Bluey had snookered them. She had been acting recklessly. She had been revealing too much. She/They had to plan how to ride the turbulence that was coming as a result of their reaction to the fire¡¯s fiery nature. Thankfully the water had remained dominant but... Beep Bluey!

    * * *

    Mary looked over what they were slowly coming to realise was the throne room of the gods of Fragatta. Something was missing. She concentrated and a fire pit took shape at some distance from the shore and the fiery skinned volcano goddess manifested herself with a laugh. She lounged comfortably amongst the lava.

    Mary searched and slowly got frustrated. Fragatta¡¯s Godscape was virtually empty. She felt some sparks and invited those that seemed still active. Several were almost completely moribund. One of those had the affinity she wanted, so she grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and dragged her into their presence.

    * * *

    Graiazella found herself dragged out of her torpor and into the throne room of the gods. Resentfully she forced her eyes open and didn¡¯t recognise where she was. The Frost King wasn¡¯t presiding over his icy throne room. The throne room was gone, and the sun was beating down heating the sand and sparkling of the waves. A twin goddess was lounging comfortably on her twin thrones knee deep in an endless sea. Graizella found herself standing on a grass-covered dune near the beach. The twin goddess looked at her and nodded. She felt a rush as manna flooded into her along with the knowledge of a peculiar moss.

    ? Add that to your portfolio o goddess of the Harvest. You understand how it will help melt the Beep Ice. Right. You will help reclaim Fragatta for its people, right? ?

    Graiazella gave a jerky nod and heard a hissing laugh. She looked and saw another newcomer, a fiery skinned black haired goddess lounging in a pool of lava.

    * * *

    Altogether Mary found another two near moribund gods. She hooked them up with a small manna feed. Maybe they¡¯d come in useful in the future and surely they would be hostile to the New Gods.

    Then finally her invitation bore fruit. Altogether some twenty-one minor gods manifest in her, yes her/their throne room. Each one represented a concentration of survivors.

    ¡®Only twenty-one, Beep those beep new gods. And I have to work with two of ¡¯em. Creevar the creep an¡¯ Azurea the self-centred. Scary they seem the best of a bad lot. Makes me wonder ¡¯bout the so called Great Gods. Mmm, this may not be bad, manna¡¯s already startin¡¯ to come seepin¡¯ in.¡¯

    Then all present saw the same blue screen proclaiming:

    ? The Gods Court of Fragatta has been reconvened. Present are all the current Gods of Fragatta. Presiding is Mary Mother of Monsters. ?

    Mary grimaced. ? Beep Bluey, what are you plain¡¯ at? First foisting that volcano on me an¡¯ I¡¯ve fires to put out on Earth thanks to that prank of yours. An¡¯ now this, how in hell am I supposed... ?

    ? Mother of Monsters, are you implying you can¡¯t hold onto Fragatta and save this world? ?

    The Marys straightened on their thrones and glared. ? What is mine I hold. Somehow or other I will remain, it¡¯s just it would have been easier... ?

    ? Believe it or not Mother of Monsters you have ensured Fragatta will not die. Still, you have much to do or only about half the oasis¡¯ of life will survive long enough. And the Great Gods are going to take notice now Fragatta¡¯s has a new functioning Gods Court. And they have to find someone in charge when they do. ?

    ? Great incompetents you mean Bluey, ? sniffed Mary in contempt.

    And for the first time in a millennium The System snickered.

    The Marys rolled their eyes.

    ? Huh, have to find a sun god. ?

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary relaxed, happy to be back home, she flickered contentedly and spread herself through her own slice of the Pacific. ¡®Now how do I hide for a while longer? Maui is close to the tippin¡¯ point, that is if it hasn¡¯t occurred already. Soon anyone is goin¡¯ be presented with a message ¡¯bout Blue Lagoon. Yeah that¡¯ll work...¡¯

    Mary gathered her domain and withdrew it from the beach and then from the surface of the ocean. It took a bit of work but retaining the link to the cliff and her caverns proved possible. Otherwise she withdrew her domain so it started four meters under the surface at high tide. That left her feeling cramped so she spread it further off shore and deeper into the Pacific.

    A bit more testing left her satisfied. ¡®Next, let¡¯s see what¡¯s been happenin¡¯, an¡¯ I guess I owe Mycroft an¡¯ Moriarty an apology for makin¡¯ things difficult.¡¯

    ? Mycroft, Moriarty, Lane sorry for making things difficult recently, got rid of the volcano now. Anything urgent I should know ¡¯bout? ?

    Mary heard Lane laugh. ? The committee is in a shambles, they¡¯re knifing each other in the back. Suggest you hold the Leopard girls in reserve. The chairman¡¯s resigned and is scrambling to save his career. The new date for them to convene is sometime in a few months time. ?

    ? ¡¯K, they¡¯ll be sorry. But ¡¯K, Next. ?

    ? Everybody knows you made the Ponies. They¡¯re being studied. Nothing is going to stop them being recognised as sapient beings. There is a massive demand, especially the unicorns. You are between a rock and a hard place. You will need hundreds if not thousands to satisfy demand, and the more you hand out the more will demand for something similar for adults grow. ?

    ? ¡¯K Lane, sorry but a couple of hundred will be pushing it. Can do maybe, but thousands is right out. ?

    ? I¡¯ll do what I can Mother, but lots of folk are going to hate you. ?

    ? Let ¡¯em hate. Maybe they¡¯ll feed me if they hate enough an¡¯ get stupid. Got an idea for the tweens an¡¯ adults. But they will prefer to fix the youngsters just like the ponies. ?

    ? Fix? I thought they healed? ?

    ? Keep sayin¡¯ that. But yeah, Fix is the word. Not doin¡¯ this for nothin¡¯. ?

    Moriarty snorted in amusement. ? Magitech Inc. has had several orders for the DNA set. Our finances are now completely in the black. Legally so. The IRS are going to have kittens. We need an address. ?

    ? How ¡¯bout, Queen¡¯s Court, Castle on the Moon? A rover is due soon right? Put up a notice somewhere prominent in the entrance hall. ?

    ? Please Mother, how is that going to allow us to claim the profits? ?

    ? Do we need to? Oh all right, set up a branch office somewhere. Near Pearl for example. Hire a couple of patsies to answer phones and monitor the online orders, after we¡¯ve screened ¡¯em naturally. An¡¯ I¡¯ll bet the patsies will all be government employees. Can you arrange it so each works for a different agency? ?

    ? I probably can Mother, ? agreed Mycroft. ? But why? ?

    ? ¡¯Cause some idiot luddites are bound to think it a good idea to attack ¡¯em. And I¡¯d prefer not to get innocents killed. I could turn the place into a fortress and still not guarantee the safety of the poor so an¡¯ sos. ?

 Chapter 104

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C IN ORBIT * * *

    Johnny Stevens loved this job. It was probably the biggest thing Mother had ever attempted, and he was in charge. Luckily he was good at multitasking. The only thorn in his life was his fellow magical AI Will Gorgas who Mother had tasked with the well being of their workers and the people down on the surface.

    Fortunately ¡°Colonel¡± Gorgas was handling their base and the mines on Nin¡¯rocha Fragatta¡¯s second moon. That pinkish red orb was surprisingly rich in iron and other metals. Stevens watched attentively from his nest on the Neil Armstrong. The Colonel¡¯s Yuri Gagarin was right here under the command of Crawford, the Colonel¡¯s aide. Both of the large spaceships moved away from the first of Mother¡¯s space mirrors. It was a little thing, a proof of concept, only a kilometre across.

    Now to see if the program controlling its computer would work or if he would have to leave a dedicated command team. The flimsy satellite slowly tracked the sun, oriented itself, oh so slowly and almost seemed to catch fire as it caught the sun, deflected and focused the light and energy of the sun down onto Fragatta¡¯s northern hemisphere, targeting a peculiar triangular cluster of hills.

    Stevens looked out at the bright star that accompanied Fragatta¡¯s sun. The two stars were less than a light year apart, which he suspected made this a double system. He spent a couple of seconds idly wondering if any sophonts lived there and what they would think in eight months time when the light of his mirrors arrived in their skies.

    Then he watched as the small runabout Swift Voyager left orbit and headed back to the surface of Fragatta.

    * * *

    On the Swift Voyager Mike Silvestre found himself unable to tear his eyes away from the brilliant mirror that was beaming light down onto the surface of the icelocked planet below. Cindy and Oscar were likewise glued to the small windows as they tried to process the fact that their programs were controlling the satellite that was the forerunner of many more.

    ¡°God Mike, I still can¡¯t believe this. Other worlds, terraforming,¡± murmured Oscar.

    ¡°And those AIs, The Colonel and Stevens. They are so... so human!¡± added Cindy.

    ¡°Well you¡¯ve already met Moriarty and then there¡¯s Mycroft. They all worship my little girl. They¡¯ve got good taste at least.¡± Said the proud father.

    = = O = =

    Villius of the eyes gazed down on the frozen wilderness with shock. He sent a triad of his eyes back into the past to see what had happened to this world. When he last visited it, it had been really quite pleasant.

    When his eyes returned he watched the ice advance. Still that was not the answer he wanted so he sent another triad of eyes further back, and another even further into the past.

    Slowly three by three his eyes returned to him. And Villius saw. And what he saw he recorded.

    He noted the moment the New Gods were installed and the meddling of Brinius of the Blue Host and Meera the Night. Shocked he noted how the teachings of the New Sages had led to disaster.

    Further he noted the moment the rash youngster claimed primacy on this world. Her disdain for his fellows almost spurred him into action. Only the fact that the reckless youngster had already acted and that meddling in time tended to lead to disaster held his hands.

    Then he saw the silver ships flying into space and once again two triads of eyes left him to search for the truth. When his eyes returned he studied what they had seen and he focused fifty of his sixty-six eyes on the new mini sun while two triads sped away to see the spot the beam arrived on the surface.

    One triad had watched as the hills warmed, slowly and only by a bit. But they were warming. The other triad had moved through the hills and followed the small life signs. Then they returned to show him that deep under the surface where the planet itself warmed the stone, a small colony of dark elves struggled to exist. They had recently overthrown their god given overlords and had returned to their bloodthirsty spider goddess and... and...

    Horrified and shocked, Villius of the eyes fled back to the gardens of paradise with a report for the Emperor of the Dawn.

    * * * EARTH ¨C THE GUILD * * *

    Fidget was recalling their journey through this gigantic country with its unbelievable cities. The day they had passed in Washington while their guide had gone to handle a task for his mistress had allowed them to explore this world¡¯s System files. They were skimpier than most, not that surprising really.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    She met Swiftfall Sunhigh¡¯s gaze and suspected he too was considering their journey. And the information they had mined. The guild they were bound for was truly in its infancy. They had a real chance to mould it into something that could help this world and its adventurers. And then there was Kent and his mistress. Fidget didn¡¯t see any way that dungeon wouldn¡¯t gain undue influence. It was ridiculous. So few dungeons on a world that hadn¡¯t known the system for a year and yet one was Godlike and it controlled one other. And that was Elite.

    As senior guild officials and ambassadors to a new guild the System had been surprisingly helpful. But still, Blue Lagoon scared her despite the fact that it wasn¡¯t truly a dungeon anymore, or rather not entirely a dungeon. Fidget rather suspected that the Mother of Monsters would always remain both a goddess and a dungeon. And this was her home world. A world of technological marvels such as the Tinkerer could only dream of.

    = = O = =

    Jake had just finished his shift when his phone rang. He checked but didn¡¯t recognise the number, half expecting a cold caller he answered.

    ¡°Good afternoon, am I speaking with the guild master of the adventurer¡¯s guild? This is Lane Loisdottir speaking for Blue Lagoon.¡±

    Jake scrambled to change gears, he scrambled for some facts and still more than half expected this to be a hoax call. ¡°Uh, yes... Err are you the dungeon¡¯s Voice?¡±

    Lane laughed merrily, ¡°No Mr Hennessy, Mother¡¯s Voice is a delightful imp of a girl on Parthia. I¡¯m her PA here on Earth.¡±

    ¡°Mother?¡±

    ¡°Mother of Monsters Mr Hennessy. And really, Mother fits her when it comes to her people. Well, I¡¯m contacting you to let you know that the Adventurer¡¯s Guild delegation from Tarifax will be arriving in your town early tomorrow with assorted gifts and more relevant information.¡±

    ¡°Um, why is a dungeon trying to help the Adventurer¡¯s Guild?¡±

    ¡°Because a well run Guild acts as a buffer between dungeons and the public. And hopefully can act as a counter weight to the governments of our world. True you oppose rogues but your guild tends to flourish when balanced with healthy dungeons.¡±

    ¡°What does a godlike dungeon need with a feeble guild like ours?¡±

    Lane laughed again. ¡°Why Jake, Mother doesn¡¯t want the headache of herding cats. Quite frankly Tarifax and Fragatta are more in need of her attention than Earth. And Earth has a, how can I put it, a jealous god.¡±

    ¡°One god right?¡±

    ¡°How can He be jealous of other gods if He is the only god.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°So Jake, where do you want your delivery. Some gold is involved too.¡±

    * * *

    Next day Jinny and Wiz were waiting outside Wiz¡¯s long-suffering parents¡¯ house when a dusty old army truck pulled up on the road outside. It was being driven by a catman. He jumped down followed by an honest to god drow and a gnome woman. A wolfman security guard emerged from a huge crate that was taking up a third of the trucks cargo area.

    Jinny blinked when she realized the cute catman was called Kent Clarkson. The guild reps were the gnome and the drow, Fidget and Swiftfall Sunhigh.

    They all helped unload the truck and stacked all the crates in Wiz¡¯s parents garage. Then they retired to the local burger joint for lunch and a conversation that soon attracted the attention of a couple of local nerds and gamers.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    ? Hi Hawai¡¯iloa, how are things going? By the way congrats on the French, that was amusin¡¯. But how are we goin¡¯ to explain Lewis¡¯ Wonderland and the offices for rent? ?

    ? Hi Mother, why I¡¯ll just explain I was hired to build it by Lewis. ?

    ? Huh. Na, tell ¡¯em you were hired by a dungeon, don¡¯t use Lewis¡¯ name. An¡¯ why don¡¯t you throw in somethin¡¯ ¡¯bout how dungeons can be profitable. ?

    Mary sensed that Hawai¡¯iloa was laughing. ? You want me to continue with the French speaking aliens? ?

    ? Yes. When you get to Mars, find a depression an¡¯ build a Chateaux next to it. Lewis wants to visit Mars. An¡¯ I want a nice lake to start. ?

    ? Fun! Then what? ?

    Mary passed him the plans for her orbital mirrors together with a visual of Fragatta.

    ? See if you can set one or two of those up an¡¯ then go explorin¡¯ for a bit. Countin¡¯ on you to keep the space agencies off balance for a bit. ?

    * * * EARTH ¨C HOUSTON * * *

    The mission director glared at the screen in disbelief. Their rover had just crested a small ridge and there in the distance was a fairy tale castle complete with slender towers capped with totally unneeded conical roofs.

    In the background the French translators were speaking with the f¡¯ing aliens. He noted some excited comments from them when the castle came into sight. Then silence as everyone looked at the screen in disbelief. It was an incongruous and ridiculous sight.

    Then with its now usual crackling the alien responded to the translators unguarded uttering¡¯s.

    ¡°Le chateau ¨¦tait une commission. Et franchement, les catacombes sont des sources de tr¨¦sors et d¡¯¨¦normes profits, bien entendu j¡¯ai d¨¦cid¨¦ d¡¯accepter la commission.¡±

    He heard the translation through his ear-bud. ¡°The castle was a commission. And frankly, catacombs are sources of treasure and huge profits, of course I decided to accept the commission.¡±

    The rover made its careful way towards the castle. As it approached the drawbridge lowered and the portcullis rose. The rover stopped just in front of the open drawbridge even as the mission room slowly filled up.

    After some argument, and with the knowledge that a Chinese rover was not that far behind them the command team decided to send the rover across the drawbridge.

    Once it had entered the short tunnel behind the portcullis it dropped even as the drawbridge closed. Then some sensors nobody had really expected to be useful began registering.

    ¡°Breathable atmosphere! Thirty degrees centigrade and high humidity.¡±

    Then the inner gate opened and the rover trundled its way into a luxurious looking lobby. A white rabbit standing on its hind legs and wearing a gaudy waistcoat was waiting for them. It was checking a large pocket watch. ¡°Good, you aren¡¯t late yet. We must hurry, the Queen of Hearts is waiting.¡±

    Pandemonium broke out in the mission room.

    Nobody saw the notice board behind the elaborate reception desk. At least not then. But later there would be intense speculation about the mostly empty board that was titled ¡°Queen¡¯s Court¡± and stated ¡°Offices for rent, ¡®-1 Portal plc.¡¯, and ¡®-2 MagiTech inc.¡¯.¡±

 Chapter 105

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C CREEVAR¡¯S KILLERS & DEEPSIX * * *

    Their trip up the river Suran to Riverport took four days. The Suran was a wide and sluggish river that wound its way through fertile fields. It was too shallow for ocean going ships. Their riverboat had been pulled by teams of oxen that used the wide road that followed its right bank.

    Harrassan looked round the river docks, happy to be back on dry land. The riverboat had been far less comfortable than one of Blue Lagoon¡¯s ships but it had saved them time.

    They had left Falreena and her satellites behind in Silverton. Apparently Azurea still had a task for her priestess.

    Creevar¡¯s Killers made their way to the local Adventurer¡¯s Guild. It was housed in a rather unprepossessing edifice and lacking in amenities. The quest board only listed basic tasks, gathering and escort mainly. Harrassan nodded to himself. A dungeon would be a boon for this guild, even if it would be as uninspired as he suspected after talking to Drina.

    ¡°Well Deepsix, what do you think. Riverport is a fair sized town at the end of the main navigable stretch of the river, a decent bridge, no nearby dungeons, a small struggling guild. The worked out quarry is about two hours walk to the north in the foothills.¡±

    ¡°I, um, am not sure about those things, but a set existing chambers or caves is always useful. I really hope this dungeon isn¡¯t discovered too soon. So maybe it¡¯s a little too close to town.¡±

    ¡°Well Deepsix, any further and a settlement will grow up around the dungeon. It still might but Riverport is reasonably prosperous so it should mitigate against a new settlement.¡±

    * * *

    The following morning they left Riverport riding on some small ugly looking large headed horses the twins had found. The horses proved surprisingly tireless and nimble.

    The old worked out quarry was declared satisfactory by Deepsix, after he had explored it and its surroundings carefully.

    While Creevar¡¯s Killers set up camp and prepared to spend some time waiting for Deepsix to be ready to either leave or stay, Deepsix made his way to a rough chamber at the end of a deep shaft and placed Dr Lara Fischer¡¯s core in a small alcove he had painstakingly carved in one of the walls.

    Deepsix sank to his knees and prayed to Azurea for her help for this new core. By the time the prayer was done a dungeon wisp had appeared and was eagerly awaiting the new core¡¯s awakening. Deepsix fed Dr Fisher¡¯s core some manna and prudently withdrew.

    * * *

    Dr Fisher awoke, again. This time she was alone except from a bobbing ball of glowing swamp gas. She was in a crude limestone chamber.

    ? Oooh those hyenas! Why don¡¯t they leave me alone...¡±

    ? Hyenas! Done. Your starting monsters are Hyenas. Further as the only other monster you know is incapable of surviving in your dungeon I will evolve it for you. ?

    Dr Fisher was reeling when Ricewind the wisp offered his services as a companion.

    ? What! Oh Hecate that¡¯s truly hideous... What, yes... ?

    ? done. Dr Lara Fisher has accepted the wisp Ricewind as her companion. ?

    Dr Fisher wanted to blink but she couldn¡¯t. Out of a sense of fascinated horror she summoned the bizarre creature that she couldn¡¯t get out of her mind. The deep sea angler fish that seemed to have been merged with a hyena appeared in the middle of her heart chamber.

    * * * THE GARDENS OF PARADISE * * *

    Villius of the eyes arrived back in the Gardens of Paradise. He breathed in the perfume of the abundant flowers, avoiding almost instinctively the beds containing the scarlet poppies not wishing to slumber for several years. With his eyes maintaining a close orbit around his head he hurried home.

    Some hours later, freshly bathed and perfumed, garbed in his restrictive court robes he made his stately way to the palace serving the greater gods of the low middle tier.

    With practiced ease he dispensed the necessary gifts to the souls serving at this palace and bought his way to an appointment with Bucantil the Somnolent, god of the mid tier who had been in charge of this palace for the past millennia and a half. More gifts were given and Villius remained expressionless as he crossed his three pairs of arms and bowed. Making the correct bow required of a god of the lower mid tier when meeting one of the mid tier.

    Bucantil narrowed his scarlet eye, failing as ever to read any expression on Villius. Personally Bucantil thought Villius had an unfair advantage as the only feature on his sky blue egg shaped head was a rather large spreading three nostriled nose.

    Bucantil watched Villius¡¯ presentation, and considered. Rather reluctantly he agreed with Villius but, and it was a big but, Brinius of the Blue Host and Meera the Night were both gods of lower high tier. And the New Sages had the ear of Duuna of the silken thighs. And she reputedly had caught the eye of the Emperor besides being a goddess of the upper high tier.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    So how to distance himself?

    ¡°Sorry Villius but you know how things are. Tell you what, I will give you a pass to visit the worlds. Go and I will think on what you have shown me.¡±

    Villius bowed again, not quite as deeply this time and backed out of the presence of the representative of the Emperor of the Dawn to the gods of the lower mid tier. He turned and returned to his home. He was fuming inside, but despite everything he was surprised. Bucantil hadn¡¯t just kicked him out. Unfortunately that meant the ball was once again in his court. Now how was he going to get himself out of the mess his little vacation had got him into.

    After packing a few delicacies and making a few discrete enquiries among the lower tier gods. Villius couldn¡¯t help sneering to himself at the thought of the lower tier gods who had to actually put in a few hours of work every year.

    He now had a list of worlds the proponents of the New Sages had decided to influence. He had co-opted one of the spawn of the poppy addicted Cthulhu the dreamer. Fatagn the slothful was a chip of the old block but a sea god might prove useful in dealing with the arrogant one. Even if he was one of the lower low tiered greater gods.

    First he visited Ambuila. His eyes were able record the decline of a marginal world. The world¡¯s deserts had started growing almost from the moment of the arrival of the proponents of the New Sages. And now the deserts were growing visibly from year to year. It was ¨C troubling.

    Diavlo was beyond shocking. Villius found himself forced to return to the Gardens to meditate and calm himself. Fatagn the slothful he released to his own devices. Somehow he didn¡¯t think he would need him.

    The whole situation was unprecedented. The planetaries and multi-system lower gods were defying the greater gods. And even worse some of them were saving the worlds ruined by the chosen of the greater gods. It was ¨C unprecedented. It was unacceptable. Better that the worlds should die than the upper tier gods be defied. Be proved wrong. And they were being proved wrong. What to do? What was he to do?

    After a week of meditation, interrupted by his thoughts scurrying round in circles Villius almost surrendered to despair. Then out of desperation he tried to look at the situation as an opportunity. It took him another week to work out a possible plan. If the upper tier gods were going to be shown up, well so be it. If he handled things correctly maybe, just maybe he could get enough credit to advance.

    So, that left gaining more evidence regarding the experiments and selecting which ambitious gods he could goad into leading the charge. Well he had time ¨C possibly.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary lost herself in her experiments. She was having fun trying to enflesh her most recent inspiration. It certainly looked that Whiskers would come to life soon, followed by his race. The, admittedly not so small, black, winged cat inspired by Jhary-a-Conel faithful friend stretched and looked round. He yawned curling his tongue. Mary noted that his upper fangs were a tad long and that his mouth opened rather wider than one would expect of a cat.

    She stretched out her hand and scratched him under the chin smiling at the loud purr.

    ¡®I¡¯m keepin¡¯ you Whiskers. Damn Bluey but I always liked cats now they kinda seem necessary in my dryland dungeons. An¡¯ Whiskers is cute.¡¯

    Mary grinned when Whiskers flew onto her shoulder and settled down expecting to be carried. She made her way up to her home and wandered into the kitchen.

    ¡°Hi mama, this is Whiskers, an¡¯ he¡¯s a telepath. He¡¯s much brighter than the ponies an¡¯ his healin¡¯ abilities are subtly different. He an¡¯ his folk will collect the life energy of their kills and use that to heal. They¡¯re cats so they won¡¯t be killin¡¯ themselves to heal people. An¡¯ as telepaths they¡¯ll know people an¡¯ some people will not be healed by ¡¯em.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s wise dear? Those people might sue. And are the pixies safe?¡±

    ¡°If someone¡¯s been cruel or worse to cats they can whistle. As for pixies, yes, it was difficult but they¡¯re safe.¡±

    * * *

    Dr. Gullwing sat back in his chair as he waited for one of the hospital¡¯s receptionists to transfer the call. ¡°Hello Ms Silvestre, what can I do for you today?¡±

    ¡°Got somethin¡¯ that will work with adults. But they¡¯re finicky an¡¯ have special needs. Beein¡¯ cats they are somewhat more selfish than the ponies. They will need to kill things for the life force they will use to heal. Mice, rats, birds, that kind of thing.

    ¡°Then they¡¯re telepathic so no chance will they touch people that have been cruel to cats. Do you want them? only have six so far. Five ladies and a tom.¡±

    Gullwing cast his eyes up to the ceiling. ¡°Why cats? I¡¯m allergic to dander. You do realize that there will have to be trials. Telepathic you say? The ponies are causing us lots of problems now that it looks like they will be recognised as having limited sapience. What about these cats.¡±

    ¡°Hey, that¡¯s good news on the ponies. Thanks. My cats are lots brighter than the ponies.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± sighed Gullwing. ¡°When can you send them to me? I¡¯ll have some people waiting for them. Anything else?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll get someone to drive them over directly. They should be there in little over an hour. An¡¯ they can fly.¡±

    ¡°Fly? Why didn¡¯t you use dogs? Dogs are smarter and more co-operative than cats.¡±

    ¡°¡¯Cause I wanted independent minded folk. Why don¡¯t you turn loose your healers? You do have healers don¡¯t you? They should be able to advance to be near as good as the cats.¡±

    ¡°Because clinical trials are still ongoing. The AMA won¡¯t allow just anyone to work as a doctor. There are standards to be kept. And why almost?¡±

    ¡°The cats harvest life force by killin¡¯ rats an¡¯ other vermin an¡¯ use it in the healings. Your healers won¡¯t have that resource. But they¡¯ll have knowledge.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C IN THE NEWS * * *

    Today the President signed an executive order that declared a half-mile circle of ocean between Big Island and Maui a no go zone. The navy is mobilizing forces to strictly enforce this zone.

    According to reliable sources an advanced underwater base is being built at that location.

    * * *

    The WWF has today declared the Sea Serpent to be a critically endangered species. The organisation has been able to identify three individual animals. Efforts are being made to tag these creatures so that they can be studied for the betterment of science.

    * * *

    The army has managed to clear the second level of the Winter Wolf Dungeon in Bismark. An army spokesperson has admitted that casualties have been heavy but that they believe they will eliminate this dungeon by the end of the month.

    A government spokesperson has stated that the peculiar caves under a park on Maui where a series of formerly extinct animals have been discovered is in fact also a dungeon named Dinosaur Caves.

    The spokesperson has assured us that there is no danger to the public on Maui and that the dungeon, known as Dinosaur Caves will be maintained due to its unique flora and fauna.

    * * *

    Magitech inc is finding it difficult to keep up with demand for its products. Their enchanted earrings sold as Atmospheric Control for one and a half thousand USD are extremely popular in the more polluted cities of the world. It would seem that they are in fact highly efficient individual air filtration systems.

 Chapter 106

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary tried to look attentive as she watched the various ambassadors and representatives of the states that existed around the Great Ocean strutting around trying to serve their realms. She had cribbed heavily from the palace of Versailles when she realised that she would need somewhere to house all the delegations that were converging on New Maui.

    Now New Maalea had an overly elaborate seafront palace set in impressive gardens on the outskirts of the biggest town in her domain. And she was stuck presiding over the party.

    ¡®Beep girl, but you doin¡¯ good. There are representatives from ¡¯bout half the maritime nations here. An¡¯ most are honestly happy with me for sweepin¡¯ Blackbeard¡¯s scum off the seas. An¡¯ then there¡¯s the ones who are offerin¡¯ me what they see as small useless islands so that I¡¯ll patrol their waters.¡¯

    * * * EARTH ¨C HOUSTON * * *

    ¡°How soon can we get a manned mission into orbit. We absolutely must try to pick up that communications satellite of the aliens.¡±

    ¡°I agree with you sir, but are you sure it¡¯s worth the risk of angering the aliens.¡±

    The director of operations looked tired and rumpled, he¡¯d been sleeping poorly. ¡°It¡¯s us or the Russians. Or the Chinese, or the Indians or Europeans. Everyone wants that thing.¡±

    ¡°As I said, I agree. I just hope the public will.¡±

    ¡°The aliens are still accelerating. They¡¯ll be at Mars before you know it. And they are speaking to us via that satellite. There is virtually no time lag. They are communicating faster than light. We just have to learn how that¡¯s possible.¡±

    ¡°We should be ready for liftoff sometime late next week.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C OREGON * * *

    Frank Goodyear concentrated on trying to breath. Even in this oxygen tent it was getting very difficult. He cursed the cigarettes that had landed him with emphysema. And now he was dying. Dr Hunt had been rather blunt. He had a month, two at most.

    He wheezed as he waited. His eyes flickered across the blue screens. He wasn¡¯t beaten yet. He would outlive all his ungrateful brats. They had never been sufficiently grateful and now the vultures were gathering. Well he¡¯d show them.

    Finally, the damn nurse was here. Slowly he cleaned himself up with help. He hated needing help but he was damn near one hundred years old. He cast his mind back to the years of his glory. He¡¯d been one of the better game show hosts in the fifties and sixties. And he¡¯d never been without a cigarette in his hands either. And he hadn¡¯t had cancer either.

    Then it was time. He sat on his wheelchair while his private nurse checked his oxygen supply before pushing him into the reception of the old folks home. Then there was another delay as that damn doctor Hunt objected to him leaving.

    After signing a disclaimer he was finally out of the damn place. The male nurse placed him in the hired car and got behind the wheel.

    Then it was a case of fighting the traffic to get out of Salem, then they were on the interstate heading south before switching to the highways to head east.

    Three and a half hours later they pulled up outside the deserted and partially derelict amusement park he owned near Madras. Frank Goodyear watched as his nurse opened the gate with the key he supplied. Then they drove in and parked between the worn out buildings that used to house the tunnel of love and the house of horrors. Frank sipped some water that the nurse supplied, and endured being manhandled into his wheelchair. He watched with dead eyes as his lawyer drove in while the nurse changed his oxygen cylinders.

    Joe Pettigrew his lawyer got out of the passenger side of the sleek Mercedes while a young severely dressed woman emerged from behind the wheel.

    ¡°Are you sure you want to do this Mr Goodyear. It might backfire, there are no precedents,¡± asked Pettigrew.

    ¡°Yes I am,¡± wheezed Frank. ¡°I¡¯ve only got a few weeks. You have the power of attorney ready?¡±

    The young woman produced a folding table from the trunk of the Mercedes and set it up in front of the wheelchair. Papers were produced and signed.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°Excuse me sir, but this contract, while very generous is for one year minimum and...¡± Gonzales the nurse started to say before trailing off.

    ¡°I know,¡± wheezed Frank. ¡°But I¡¯m not planning on dying yet¨C Just changing.¡±

    ¡°What is a dungeon¡¯s Voice anyway?¡± asked Gonzales.

    ¡°A kind of mix of PA and spokesman,¡± wheezed Frank.

    After a dubious look Gonzales signed.

    ¡°Is that everything?¡± and on seeing Pettigrew¡¯s nod, Frank wheezed a nervous laugh. ¡°Please lead the way Mr Pettigrew.¡±

    Pettigrew nodded again and led the way to the back of the building that used to house the gift shop and restaurant before opening a steel door with a key that he then passed to Gonzales.

    They got into a freight lift and descended two floors. There was one large room with one small room behind another steel door. Once Frank Goodyear had been wheeled into this room he grinned and called up the blue menus. While the other three watched with disbelief Frank wheezed, ¡°Race ¨C Dungeon Core ¨C Yes, yes and yes.¡±

    The air seemed to distort and shimmer. Frank Goodyear¡¯s age and disease ravaged body was replaced by a glowing, flickering dark green onyx sphere. Pettigrew blinked with surprise. Ms Smith drew in a sharp breath and Gonzales narrowed his eyes in speculation.

    The System spoke privately to the new dungeon, ? congratulations on having chosen to become a dungeon core, you may choose one starting monster type, but first we must deal with contractual obligations ?

    Then it included Gonzales, ? you have entered into a contract to become the Voice of this dungeon. The contract further states the link will be superficial for the first year and further resolved thereafter. Are you both still in agreement? ?

    Frank was revelling in the lack of pain and in not having to strain to remain alive, ? Yes. ? he replied cheerfully.

    Gonzales frowned but also said, ¡°Yes.¡±

    ? Condition met, link established. ?

    ? Thank you. Would it be possible to choose nymphs and satyrs as my starting monsters? ?

    ? Be aware that you will be restricted by your choice until you accumulate sufficient manna and experience to obtain further advances. Do you still wish to have nymphs and satyrs? ?

    ? Yes please. I hereby name my Dungeon ¡°Bet Your Life¡± and I am basing it on classic game shows, but with a twist of spice. ?

    ? Done! A companion will show up in due time. ?

    * * *

    Gonzales accompanied Pettigrew and his notary to his car.

    ¡°So Gonzales, did it work. Is the old guy alive and lucid in that gem?¡±

    ¡°I think so Mr Pettigrew. At least he seems to be able to talk to me in his head. I get the impression that soon he¡¯ll be able to talk to most anyone inside his domain.¡±

    ¡°So what will you be doing?¡±

    ¡°Well, I live alone with my dog. That contract is generous; it represents a thirty percent rise. I¡¯ll let my landlord know I¡¯m leaving at the end of the month and look for a pet friendly place to rent in Madras.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t take out a long lease, I have orders to add a floor to the shop and restaurant that will include two flats. I believe one of them is for you. Verify that with Mr Goodyear. The alterations should be done in a month or so.¡±

    ¡°So what¡¯s next?¡±

    ¡°Next? Next is the fun part Gonzales. I get to register Mr Frank Goodyear as a dungeon core in the altered citizens registry. And somehow prove it is indeed him. I think that makes three dungeons now. The good, the bad and the ugly; Dinosaur Caves, Winter Wolf and Bet Your Life.¡± Pettigrew sighed. ¡°Oh god, television game shows from the sixties. The mind boggles.¡±

    ¡°There are more than three Mr Pettigrew,¡± Gonzales seemed to look inwards, ¡°There are eight. And two are more powerful than Winter Wolf.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary shared a look with Jerica. ¡°Up to you, you are the seniormost companion on the planet after all.¡±

    Jerica shook her head and frowned. ¡°You must rubbing off on me Mary, The thought of all that work...¡±

    Mary shrugged and went back to studying the data available on the new dungeon that had appeared in Oregon. She wouldn¡¯t have bothered if it wasn¡¯t for the enquiry Tobias Nelson the CEO of Silver Dolphin Security had received.

    ? Up to you Tobias, it¡¯s too far from the sea for me to be able to help much. But you already knew that. ?

    ? Yes Mother, ? the wolf ¡¯folk CEO grinned. ? I¡¯ll fire off a counterproposal to the dungeon¡¯s lawyer and if we can come to an agreement I¡¯ll assemble a team and send them off. ?

    ? Why don¡¯t you take a flight with one of your accountants an¡¯ negotiate in person. Purchase or rent somewhere nearer the sea to use as a HQ in the state if you come to an agreement. I¡¯ll see ¡¯bout gettin¡¯ Lewis to settin¡¯ up another branch of his Mock Turtle. ?

    ? Wonder why a dungeon wants pro security, ? mused Tobias.

    ? That¡¯s simple. Bet Your Life is new, ranked Novice. It will be small an¡¯ woefully deficient in defensive options. In the wild he¡¯d be hidin¡¯ away for a bit buildin¡¯ up his domain an¡¯ forces before revealin¡¯ himself. Here he was forced into the open or unaware he could an¡¯ should hide for a bit. ?

    * * *

    ? Mycroft, you found anythin¡¯ yet ¡¯bout that manna flare in Argentina? You know the one that knocked down their grid. ?

    ? Yes Mother, there is a small team of university students working on their doctorates and are trying to get funding for a project that would allow them to transform electrical energy to magical energy. Two of them coincidentally were not too far from the centre of the surge. ?

    ? Let¡¯s throw money at ¡¯em. Start with ten million, an¡¯ feel free to go to twenty for the first six months. But I want the rights. Or rather MagiTech wants the rights. What do you need? ?

    ? Moriarty¡¯s help. We need a lawyer. ?

    Mary thought for a moment, her experiences to date didn¡¯t imbue her with any great confidence in the breed.

    ? Mmm... Do you want to see ¡¯bout collectin¡¯ skill crystals or do you want us to hire a firm to act as backup. ?

    ? Both. ?

    ? Well, talk with Lane an¡¯ Moriarty. Figure out what we can afford. But get that ¡®¡¯lectric to manna process. MagiTech needs it thanks to the demand. ¡¯An we have all the electricity we want thanks to the Fragatta orbitals. ?

 Chapter 107

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary was racing through the waves with the latest pod of dolphins that came calling. She was having fun and relaxing. All too soon she was going to get back to that snakepit of smiling vipers that counted themselves diplomats and ambassadors.

    Admittedly the dolphins wanted something too, but at least they were honest, they wanted a safe place to raise their young and a secure food supply. But they were happy to play and joke around. It was relaxing.

    ¡®And what can I to do ¡¯bout Newtown. It¡¯s in the way, an¡¯ when I expand again it¡¯s goin¡¯ to get swallowed. The beep guild¡¯s goin¡¯ to get irked. Oh beep it, back to havin¡¯ fun.¡¯

    * * * EARTH¡¯S MOON ¨C TOURNESOL * * *

    Tournesol looked at the screen for one last time. He didn¡¯t smile because he was incapable of facial expressions. He flicked the switch that would align the communications laser with Bait, well time for one last statement.

    ¡°F¨¦licitations ¨¤ nos amis chinois ¨¤ avoir gagn¨¦ la course. Malheureusement, nous ne pouvons pas r¨¦compenser votre curiosit¨¦ de singe. L¡¯Alliance Galactique des Etats Libres n¡¯aime pas que nous donnons la technologie de pointe aus primitives. Peut-¨ºtre que maintenant vous savez qu¡¯il est possible que vous les gars peuvent comprendre le secret.¡±

    Tournesol nodded his head once in decision, he glanced at the screen and flicked up a tab and pressed the red button it was guarding.

    Out in space where it had been orbiting between the Earth and the Moon the little satellite disappeared in a flash of light and powdered debris, to mass frustration in the approaching Chinese orbiter and scientists and politicians on the Earth below.

    * * *

    In Houston the mission controller gritted his teeth in a mix of frustration and relief as one of his translators translated the crackling French as: ¡°Well congratulations to our Chinese friends for winning the race. Unfortunately we really can¡¯t reward your monkey curiosity. The Galactic Alliance of Free States frowns on us giving primitives advanced technology. Maybe now you know it is possible you will come up with it on your own.¡±

    * * *

    Tournesol carefully settled his helmet onto the receiving ring glued to his torso exosketetal plate, checked the air connections and his air supply before closing down the little base and moving through the corridor to the small attached garage. There he powered up the little moon skimmer and was soon heading towards Lewis Carroll¡¯s castle.

    He was looking forward to moving through the portal to Fragatta¡¯s moon. Mother had promised him he¡¯d have an important job there, and anyway Julienne was waiting for him there.

    * * * EARTH ¨C OREGON * * *

    Frank Goodyear felt exhausted. He had been scrambling to claim the little room on the other side of his heart chamber. The concealed door had been no hindrance thankfully. But he had a deadline, if he didn¡¯t get that fighting pit claimed many of his plans would have gone to waste. And it had been expensive.

    This was harder than he had expected, but he had managed it. Just.

    There they were. The thugs, all carefully masked and their spokesman with a voice distorter in place, they were ready for the cameras. Not that the cameras would do anything more than hum slightly. He didn¡¯t want a record of this. He triggered the recording he had had made almost a month ago.

    ¡°Welcome. The initial payment is in the blue box against the far wall,¡± he concentrated and made the box open revealing the bundles of bills. ¡°The rest is in the red box, or it will be in the red box shortly.¡±

    The lead thug strode across the room and collected the bills. He studied them carefully; then he counted them. He nodded. ¡°Good.¡±

    ¡°The cameras will be recording when the red light is lit. As you will be unable to be sure of that I am sure you will be cautious.¡±

    ¡°Too true,¡± agreed the leader.

    Then the other thugs started wheeling in the cages. And then the dog fights began. Dogs fought against dogs; dogs against other animals, snakes, even one bear.

    Frank fed well. The life energy he absorbed was very welcome, as were the templates. The latter were a surprise, he hadn¡¯t truly believed. He was glad he had kept his Voice out of this little feast. Maybe he could use the thugs again. Finally it was over. And the leader produced a revolver and killed the wounded bear.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    Frank selected four recordings and played them.

    ¡°Thank you, that was well done. Your payment is in the red box ¨C that was better than I had expected, I¡¯ve included a bonus ¨C Maybe we can cooperate again ¨C if you can figure out a safe way for me to contact you?¡±

    The leader put his revolver away and went to check his payment. Once again he inspected the notes before counting them. ¡°Maybe.¡± He pointed at his men, ¡°I¡¯ll send one of them round next week with contact details. Nice place you got here.¡±

    He gave the cameras one last look and another speculative look at the now clean fight pit before leaving.

    * * *

    Frank then concentrated on his potential advances. He finally accepted that being able to communicate with anyone in his domain was the most important thing. Especially if he wanted to be accepted as himself.

    He relaxed slightly as he used some of his new energy to claim territory around and above his core. He stopped before he finished depleting his store. He felt something lacking. He needed something more. But then he felt his lawyer returning with four people he didn¡¯t know.

    He summoned Gonzales, and felt an acknowledgement.

    ¡®Why am I feeling so nervous? None of them are armed. This is expected, why oh why do I feel the need for guards. If this doesn¡¯t work I¡¯m screwed and guards won¡¯t help. But I need...¡¯

    Frank concentrated, and in the room behind the secret door two muscular scarred fight dogs came into existence and settled down patiently to wait beside the fight pit.

    ? Good afternoon Mr Pettigrew. It worked. Should I use this new ability of mine to speak with the people that are with you, or should I wait for Gonzales? ?

    ¡°Please wait,¡± whispered Pettigrew.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MORIARTY * * *

    Professor James Moriarty made his way through Buenos Aires Ezeiza Airport, quietly collecting his bag, navigating passport control and making his way to the pre arranged meeting point where he had arranged to meet the guide provided by his local lawyer.

    The drive to Buenos Aires went quickly and he parted with his guide at the lawyer¡¯s office. Once there he verified everything was as expected. Moriarty knew the man was crooked, but he knew where all the skeletons were buried. He nodded and smiled a trifle acidly.

    Soon he had all the legalities sorted, he signed with his favourite pen. He just loved this pen Mother had developed from the rather crude original.

    Then he settled into his hotel, the Palacio Duhau. Now to see if his prey would take the bait, they all came from well off families but the Palacio Duhau was going to impress even them.

    * * *

    Mercedes Hidalgo y Acu?a looked at her friends. David Quispe was looking round nervously while Roberto Miranda was relaxing in the back seat of the taxi. She was feeling very nervous. The letter they all received that so bluntly linked them to the recent catastrophic blackout had scared them all. What did this Norte Americano know? And the offer of funding. They really had no choice.

    They were expected. The guy at reception had sent them straight up. This Professor was waiting for them. Mercedes examined him carefully; he was tall, an upright thin faced, grey haired man wearing a neat if old fashioned suit.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± she began in her best English.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± he replied in fluent accentless Castilian Spanish, ¡°please sit and have some refreshments.

    * * *

    Moriarty watched as his young guests settled themselves. They were justifiably nervous, now to proceed. ¡°As you know, I represent MagiTech inc. You must understand how your little proof of concept experiment interested us. We are willing to fund your work. We are willing to provide you with a well equipped secure lab and funds. Something in the order of ten million US dollars for the first four months. The exact amount can be adjusted. In return we want to own the process. We will happily provide you with patents and a small percentage of the profits.¡±

    He watched as the three youngsters looked at each other wide eyed. ¡®Looks like it¡¯s in the bag,¡¯ he thought, ¡®just a little haggling. Lambs to the slaughter.¡¯

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    ¡°Look, I don¡¯t care, you don¡¯t want the cats, fine. I¡¯ll take them back. They will be just as happy not havin¡¯ to work. They¡¯re cats!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not what we meant Ms Silvestre. What we as the AMA are saying is that they must pass through a rigorous regime of testing before we can accept them as a viable cure.¡±

    ¡°Fine, talk with ¡¯em. Why pester me. Easiest if I take ¡¯em back. I would object to any testin¡¯ that would cause ¡¯em harm.¡±

    ¡°All cures must be tested to ensure there are no side effects.¡±

    ¡°Fine, so what! They are not a cure, they are sapient beings who have certain abilities. They are also cats. They won¡¯t mind bein¡¯ allowed to laze about all day. C¡¯mon Whiskers, lets go home.¡± And with that Mary stood and walked out of the office totally ignoring the three representatives of the AMA sitting on the other side of the desk. Whiskers stretched, cast one disdainful look at the three and launched himself into the air and glided to perch on his human¡¯s shoulder.

    * * *

    Mary stopped just outside the downtown building where the meeting had just taken place as she blinked at all the press. Tessa stood at her shoulder. Mary grinned crookedly at the assembled pack and managed to figure out the principal question.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t be ridiculous, there is absolutely no possibility of a Nobel. The idea is ridiculous. As for your other question I¡¯ll let Whiskers answer, he was present after all.¡±

    Mary fed Whiskers a thread of manna and worked to boost his telepathic ability.

    ? Ladies and gentlemen of the press, you ask what the AMA wanted. Well as far as I could figure it, they wanted to test some of my colleagues to destruction so that they could take us apart to find our secret. They succeeded in scaring me, I will tell my friends of what passed and we will withdraw. You don¡¯t want our help, fine, then we won¡¯t give it. ?

    Then Mary turned and re-entered the building. She turned to the receptionist, ¡°Is there another way out? That mob out there are kind of intimidatin¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Certainly, go through that door and follow the corridor to the end. Please don¡¯t withdraw your cats, they¡¯re beautiful and needed.¡±

    ¡°Not allowin¡¯ ¡¯em to be taken apart for the sin of healin¡¯ people that those clowns can¡¯t save.¡± Then she was gone, the door swinging closed behind them as the press came flooding into the reception of the building.

 Chapter 108

    * * * EARTH ¨C BET YOUR LIFE * * *

    Frank watched nervously as Pettigrew and the four strangers entered the lift and started down.

    ? Help. System help. Help scr... ?

    ? how may I help ?

    ? Why am I so nervous. What¡¯s wrong with me. Why do I feel as if something is missing? ?

    ? you lack a companion ?

    And Frank just knew he was alone again. He could feel Gonzales getting closer. He fumed to himself, what good was a Voice doing him when it took his voice over half an hour to arrive. He¡¯d have to chase up the builders to see about getting those flats ready.

    He watched as the freight lift¡¯s doors opened and his lawyer and the group of strangers emerged from it. Nervously, he opened the steel door that protected his heart chamber. Mr Pettigrew ushered the other four into the room that contained his core. He could see he had no choice, his Voice was still over twenty minutes away.

    ? Good day ladies and gentlemen. I am Frank Goodyear. Yesterday in the presence of my lawyer, Mr Pettigrew, his assistant and my former nurse, now my PA or Voice I chose to change my race to dungeon core at the time of my assimilation into the System. ?

    Jeremiah Walker examined the flickering, dark green onyx sphere carefully. He heard the resonant voice in his mind. It was very similar to the couple of clips he had watched on his overnight flight. It was sobering. He had researched dungeons in the System and checked the reports from the people dealing with Winter Wolf and Dinosaur Caves. His favourite go to source had remarkably little if anything to say about dungeons, and now he was wondering why. Especially considering how close her home was to Dinosaur Caves.

    ¡°I¡¯m Jeremiah Walker of the Paranormal Division,¡± Jerry introduced himself while showing his ID in the direction of the core. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you can already speak with people in your domain Mr Goodyear. Surprised and pleased as it will make things easier.¡±

    * * *

    When his visitors finally left Frank started to search for information on companions. The more he delved into the subject the more apprehensive he became.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary rested in the middle of her domain. She relaxed even as she looked back on recent events. Somehow she suspected she was going to have to do something about the whole school situation. It left her too exposed. Summer gave her a breathing space but now Bluey had thrown her another curve ball.

    She poked at the unwelcome update screen that Jerica had brought to her attention. Some bands of purplish red light flowed across her core, if she¡¯d been in her human avatar she¡¯d have been grimacing. She read it again as if hopeful that something would have changed.

    ? congratulations! Your status as a sea goddess has been recognised, the seas are recognised as linked to your domain, your avatars are limited to your domain or to within twenty-five kilometres of a sufficiently large body of water. ?

    ¡®This is goin¡¯ to complicate things. How am I goin¡¯ to visit papa? Is his place close enough to the sea? I¡¯m not ¨C well I wasn¡¯t ready to throw over everythin¡¯ yet. An¡¯ now I don¡¯t dare set foot in a plane. Mars is goin¡¯ to be fun, not. Mmm, just how large are we talkin¡¯ about. Got the dome all ready an¡¯ then this. But the Florida visit is goin¡¯ to be beep awkward.¡¯

    ? Hey Bluey, how ¡¯bout the Drow? They don¡¯t live close to the sea. ?

    ? you don¡¯t visit them using your avatar. You visit them as a manifestation of the goddess known to them as Little Fish, the Balancer. ?

    ? An¡¯ when I manifest? ?

    ? you use one of your followers as a focus, or you can manifest freely in one of your temples or shrines or a temple but not a shrine of a god who grants you that right. ?

    ? Huh! ?

    The core quieted for a while as Mary searched through her memories and checked her new abilities and connections. It was looking more and more like the time of hiding was over. She was becoming far more visible than she ever wanted.

    ? Why you pushin¡¯ me Bluey? ?

    ? necessity. ?

    ? ... ?

    After a further period of reflexion Mary reached out for the most comfortable presence of her inner council, she invited, or maybe that should be dragged, Jerica into a ¨C gestalt. Then she collected Mycroft and Moriarty.

    After making sure they were as comfortable as they were likely to get, she reached out and incorporated Lissa and Tessa.

    Once they were all comfortable, and after ensuring they all retained their individuality, their self, she added Hawai¡¯iloa, Lane Loisdottir and Kent Clarkson.

    The sea around the cores, all of her the cores, started to boil as they heated and grew.

    Almost inevitably her other self, the other Mary arrived in a rush, the two Marys merged. And following her other self came Trisha and Drina. The gestalt grew and stabilized.

    Then the planning and brainstorming started, mostly they planned for their future on Earth, possible fallback positions and lines of retreat.Stolen story; please report.

    Microseconds later, but after what seemed to the participants like hours the various personalities separated out into their individual ¨C expanded selves.

    * * *

    Mary contemplated her domain and gathered her courage. For once she actually felt apprehensive, this was something she hadn¡¯t wanted to do on Earth. She readied herself and checked her lines of retreat.

    She reached for Kent, ? Do you grant me permission Kent? ?

    ? Be welcome Mother, don¡¯t worry, this is going to be fun. However it turns out. ?

    * * *

    Jinny and Wiz led the way out of their local Wendy¡¯s and led the way towards the parking area. Jinny stopped when Wiz looked round and stopped abruptly. She turned to see what had caught his attention.

    Kent the catman had stopped near the curb and had a weird smile on his face. Fidget and Swiftfall had detoured round him but they too had turned to stare at Kent.

    Kent looked up at her and winked, then everything seemed to blur and a glowing six meter tall young woman was standing in his place looking at them with a weird smile on her face. Swiftfall dropped to one knee and bowed his head. Fidget just bowed her head.

    ¡°Good,¡± said the apparition. ¡°Got news for you all, there¡¯s a new dungeon in Oregon, calls himself ¡®Bet Your Life¡¯, and he¡¯s going public. Getting registered with the fed. There have been spontaneous dungeon creations in Venezuela an¡¯ Cambodia. The latter is a absolute blank far as I¡¯m concerned, so, suspect it to be undead based. Also, from the manna fluctuations I¡¯m seein¡¯, I suspect that at least three other protos will be settin¡¯ down roots in the next few days.¡±

    ¡°Um, where?¡± asked Jinny.

    ¡°Possibly two in Europe, one in South America an¡¯ one, rather foolishly, near or in Bismark.¡±

    * * *

    An indignant stout middle-aged man emerged from Wendy¡¯s and struck a pose while holding up a cross. ¡°Be gone to the depths of hell from whence you came o temptress.¡±

    ¡°Hey! I¡¯m no temptress pastor. Aint ever seen hell either. I have no designs on your sheep. Your lord and master is welcome to ¡¯em.¡±

    The man sputtered impotently as he became choleric. Mary ignored him and returned her attention to the members of the adventurer¡¯s guild.

    ¡°Anyway, as I was sayin¡¯ before bein¡¯ so rudely interrupted, the shipment from Parthia for your guild has arrived. It can be delivered the day after tomorrow, coordinate with Kent. You have my blessings Swiftfall.¡±

    Then she was gone and there was just a grinning Kent Clarkson on the street.

    * * * EARTH ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Blue Lagoon: Hey Blackrock, feelin¡¯ the disturbances that suggest you¡¯re close to settin¡¯ down roots. Advise you to avoid Bismark.

    Blackrock (PrD): What do you mean put down roots? Are you threatning me?

    Blue Lagoon: I could swat you like a fly, I don¡¯t have to threaten you. Just warnin¡¯ you that you¡¯ll be settlin¡¯ down to dungeonhood soon. And Winter Wolf has made Bismark dicey for dungeons.

    Alligator Haven: Haw haw haw! Welcome to the brotherhood bro.

    Blackrock (PrD): I don¡¯t believe you!

    Blue Lagoon: No skin of my nose if you don¡¯t.

    Weasel-hame (PrD): Hey! I¡¯m in Sydney, you got bad news for me?

    Blue Lagoon: Hey Markus, you on here? Take care I suspect you¡¯ll be rooting very soon too. Your sister¡¯s really cute, take care. And no nothin¡¯ new from Oz yet.

    Weasel-hame (PrD): Phew, thanks.

    Blue Lagoon: Gettin¡¯ indications near Bel¨¦m an¡¯ Brussels, careful with your transitions. Good luck.

    Arena of Blood: Angel sends her love Mother. It¡¯s starting then?

    Dinosaur Caves: I suspect things will snowball now. Just another few months.

    Blackrock (PrD): WTF! How can she be your Mom?

    Arena of Blood (cmp): Sigh!

    Bet Your Life: It¡¯s her title, I might be new but I can read. You should try.

    Winter Wolf: Snigger. That¡¯s right Blackie, just keep hanging around.

    Blue Lagoon: Luck Linny. Back door ready? And Yeah, figure ¡¯nother six months or so an¡¯ no more proto-dungeons. Some might hang on a few months longer but doubt it.

    Winter Wolf:

    Bet Your Life: Hum, can one of you help me? I think I need a companion. How does one get one.

    Blue Lagoon (cmp): Hum! I¡¯ll see what I can do for you.

    * * * EARTH / PARTHIA ¨C JERICA / TRISHA / MARIGOLD * * *

    Jerica signed off from the Dungeon Exchange blog and sighed in resignation. It looked like dungeons were going to start popping up like hotcakes. Pity she couldn¡¯t just co-opt one of those girl scouts that had come round selling cookies. Some of them would have done well.

    ? Auntie Trish, you got a minute? ?

    ? For you Jerica, always. ?

    ? Auntie, it looks like I¡¯m being lumbered with the post of head companion for Earth. And it sucks. With Mary... Well you know auntie. ?

    ? Sigh... Yes we end up with a lot more to do than the majority of companions. I do wonder sometimes if it would hurt to ignore many of the alerts. ?

    ? Yes. I need companions. We have three new dungeons and another four opening soon. Then in the next six months or so another twenty or more will be established. And only two so far are normal creations. ?

    Trisha snorted, then she laughed. ? That¡¯s so ironic. What do you think I could do to help you dear. ?

    ? Put me in touch with Marigold. She is the head of Parthia¡¯s Dungeon Companions League, isn¡¯t she? I think I could use her help. ?

    Trisha giggled uncontrollably for several minutes while her niece waited impatiently.

    ? It is not that amusing auntie Trish. ?

    ? Yes it is dear. I¡¯ll see about getting in touch with Parthia¡¯s head companion ¨C oh dear! I¡¯ve got to stop laughing. It hurts! ?

    ? Fine. I¡¯ll have a word with Alice, see if she¡¯ll help too. ?

    * * *

    Marigold answered Trisha¡¯s call a trifle warily. It didn¡¯t do to ignore a call from a godlike ranked dungeon¡¯s companion.

    ? Good morning Trisha, what can I do for you? ?

    ? My niece asked me to contact you on her behalf. She wants to ask for your help. Bluey, err... The System has decided to treat her as her world¡¯s head companion and she has several dungeons needing companions on a world devoid of established companions. ?

    Marigold winced in sympathy; then she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. ? How did your niece become the head companion on another world? ?

    ? Mary¡¯s soul was split by Azurea. She became a dungeon on Earth, her homeworld. A world that didn¡¯t have the System or much magic, Jerica became her other self¡¯s companion. The first dungeon companion on that world, and she is the companion of a godlike dungeon. ?

    ? Very well, can you link Jerica to this conversation. ?

    ? Oh thank you Marigold, aunty Trish. Marigold I really need advice and help. There are going to be between twenty to thirty new dungeons on Earth in the next six months or so. Only two are not previous humans. I only have two dungeon pixies on Earth, and they seem uninterested in the current crop. ?

    ? I thought Trisha said your world didn¡¯t have any... ?

    ? Oh, ? interrupted Jerica. ? Mary rescued them from Tarifax. Another world Mary has access to, and one that is being poisoned. ?

    * * *

    Later Marigold checked her records and checked with some of her members. Jerica had been able to give her a surprising amount of information about most of the existing dungeons and some of the emerging ones. She liked Alice. That had been a surprise; she hadn¡¯t expected Alice to be so nice. She only hoped the girl wasn¡¯t too nice.

    ? Alice dear, I have some candidates for you and Jerica. Where do you want them to go? ?

    ? Why, to any one of the Mock Turtle entrances. We¡¯ll provide a guide and safe passage to a spot as close as possible to the dungeons that need companions. And thank you for help Marigold. ?

    ? Do you have somewhere for the eager beavers to wait while the new dungeons establish themselves? ?

    ? Jerica passed on your suggestions to Miss Silvestre. Their quarters are ready. ?

 Chapter 109

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Penguintopia (cmp): Hi mum, I¡¯m doing fine. The dungeon is expanding. We have portals!

    Crag Cave (cmp): Portals! How did you manage that Duskbright?

    Penguintopia (cmp): Rachel was lucky, she knew something Blue Lagoon wanted to know.

    Winter Wolf: Blue Lagoon, Mary, Trisha, can you tell me what¡¯s happening with the other me. Our link broke and I¡¯m kind of worried.

    Crag Cave (cmp): Is she keeping you well love? Do you have a comfortable set of rooms. Is it warm enough down there?

    Penguintopia (cmp): I¡¯m fine mom, Rachel is very considerate. She wants me to tell uncle Trapper thank you for the templates.

    Goblin Town: Stupid name ¨C Mary, can you do something for other me? He got careless and now he¡¯s changed in our flat. It¡¯s uncomfortable not being able to set down roots.

    Crag Cave (cmp): Oh Duskbright love, those penguin things are so funny... even Trapper laughed. The adventurer¡¯s hate the new ice flow room on the first level.

    Blue Lagoon: Linny, your other half has withdrawn to one of the underhill realms and is establishing a new entrance further north. It seems to be in Canada. I suspect the Canadians will not be amused when they find out.

    Winter Wolf: Don¡¯t often see you on here Mary, something up with Trisha?

    Blue Lagoon: *Snicker* Trish is fine, she¡¯s just busy liasing with Marigold and Jerica. Poor Jerica¡¯s been lumbered with the post of Head of Earth¡¯s Dungeon Companions League. *Snicker*

    Harrow Deep (cmp): Please stop harrasing my dungeon Crag Cave. Look we¡¯re sorry we turned Duskbright away. But you turned me away when I was seeking. We all do that. I¡¯m sorry OK?

    Alligator Haven: Hey give my congrats to Jerica. Hey Andy my ol¡¯ core, Gob Town¡¯s not all bad as a name.

    Turquoise Caves (cmp): Looking for an exchange. Rose has evolved and has woken. Our personalities clash.

    Blue Lagoon: I¡¯ll send someone with some treasure Andy. Where do you think they want ot relocate to and why isn¡¯t Maddy helping?

    Hell Pit (cmp): *sigh* What is Rose like Periwinkle. You know I need something to go on when I send out suitable companions.

    Turquoise Caves (cmp): Sorry Marigold, she is growing flowers absolutely everywhere! Her newest level looks like a sylvan grove. She¡¯s reclaiming all my nice swamps. My hay fever is killing me!

    Hell Pit (cmp): So, a pixie or a sprite, one of the throwbacks possibly.

    Hell Pit (cmp): And it IS not funny Blue Lagoon. Jerica is the only possible candidate on Earth. You¡¯ve rubbed off on her and now she¡¯s nasty and tough minded enough to do well. Alice is just too nice.

    Blue Lagoon: *Snicker*

    Goblin Town: Hum, funny, just noticed the only dungeons on here are the expats. Otherwise it¡¯s just companions.

    Sandy Cove: True, even those of us without links. Can any of you linked ones tell me how other me is doing? Helena Torres of Escabanas in Spain.

    * * * EARTH ¨C PARANORMAL DIVISION OF THE FBI * * *

    Jeremiah Walker walked briskly through the large office weaving his way past numerous desks and exchanging greetings with his co-workers. He was surprised to see director Perez waiting for him.

    Then he was in the director¡¯s office, seated in front of her desk. ¡°So Walker, how is the new dungeon? Any problems and can we use him as a safe precedent?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure Ms Perez, Frank Goodyear was an old man on death¡¯s door, and he had everything to gain and hopefully has the experience of years. I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll cause problems. But we will have to keep him under observation. Dungeons seem to have the potential of becoming far to powerful.¡±

    ¡°Watching brief? But what are we to do with the other new ones?¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Which others?¡±

    ¡°The Brits have one, a David Fitzwilliam has become one in Hove. He and his wife live in a flat, which is causing problems. That¡¯s two in a week. I expect more, don¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°I suppose it¡¯s inevitable Ms Perez. I¡¯d like permission to check some things out. I am starting to wonder why Ms Silvestre has been so silent when it comes to dungeons.¡±

    Director Perez leant back in her chair and studied one of her more competent agents. ¡°Fair enough, and you¡¯re in luck. Ms Silvestre is visiting her father, she¡¯s in Florida.¡±

    ¡°Thanks Ms Perez.¡±

    ¡°Take backup, and check out this adventurer¡¯s guild thing too. I¡¯m told the System is taking them seriously.¡±

    * * *

    Jerry quickly cleared his paperwork, introduced himself to his new temporary partner and reviewed what his department knew of the new guild.

    Around noon the following day Jerry parked one of the ubiquitous government SUVs in front of a small urban strip mall in Ringwood New Jersey. He and Damian Hunt walked past a pet supply store, a Subways and a 7-eleven before they arrived at a newly renovated business that proclaimed itself to be the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.

    Jerry noted that the five individuals present in the store were occupied opening and emptying a series of wooden crates. He couldn¡¯t recognise the writing on the crates never having seen that particular alphabet before. Also the black skinned white haired elf and the gnome were speaking to each other in a totally unfamiliar language. They seemed fascinated by the contents of the oddly sized crates.

    A young woman he recognised from his files as Jennifer Mendez the assistant guild master, looked up as they entered and said, ¡°Hi, can I help you?¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C BET YOUR LIFE * * *

    Frank was relieved; Pettigrew had advised him that his situation had been resolved. He was delighted to learn that he was still a US citizen in good standing. The fact that he was still liable for taxes was inevitable even if not as welcome. Now he was chatting with Gonzales while they waited for Pettigrew and the rep from the Silver Dolphin Security Company.

    ? I wonder why a bunch of army guys who chose to become wolf men decided to call their company after a dolphin? Any ideas Al? ?

    ¡°None Frank, I admit it seems strange. We could ask the rep, he should be here soon.¡±

    * * *

    Frank started examining the big wolf man the moment he entered his domain. Frank instinctively alerted his dogs but managed to remain calm enough to keep them in the other room. The wolf man, no Tobias Nelson was dual classed and had four magical items on his person. Four!

    Then he surprised Frank. As soon as he stepped into his domain he stopped, then he looked up and said, ¡°I mean you no harm, I swear on my goddess¡¯s name that I mean the dungeon Bet Your Life no harm and will only fight if attacked.¡±

    Frank sensed something, a flash of something akin to manna, puzzled he said, ? Goddess? You don¡¯t look like one of those Gaia tree hugger types. ?

    ¡°I serve the Mother of Monsters Mr Goodyear, not Gaia or Hecate or any other goddess you may have heard of, though I do acknowledge Fortuna.¡± And with that Nelson resumed walking catching Pettigrew as he waited beside the lift.

    * * *

    Gonzales stood as their guests entered the room. ¡°Please take a seat gentlemen, we might as well be comfortable before getting down to business. Can I get you anything Mr Nelson? Bourbon Mr Pettigrew?¡±

    Pettigrew gave Gonzales a jaundiced look, ¡°Please.¡±

    ¡°Coffee would be good if you have it, black, no sugar,¡± said Nelson.

    Pettigrew looked round the room, noting the changes that had occurred since his last visit, the place looked cosy with tapestries covering the concrete walls, a set of armchairs set around a couple of coffee tables. And a large flat-screen TV mounted on one of the walls.

    ¡°Mr Goodyear believes we need some security, what do you think Mr Nelson?¡± asked Gonzales.

    ¡°I think you need a lot of security. A core, beyond being a person, is a priceless magical artefact. This,¡± Tobias Nelson explained indicating the room, ¡°is far too open. You are far too vulnerable. I should not have been allowed to simply walk into your heart room. The core does not need to be present in the dungeon¡¯s audience chamber. It should be in a safe room with some dedicated dungeon monsters. And no, I do not think my guards, or any outside guards should have sole responsibility for guarding your core.¡±

    Frank felt as if he¡¯d received an electric shock. He directed a thought to his Voice.

    ¡°Very well, please make your presentation.¡±

    * * *

    ? Well what do you think Gonzales? Do we risk going with them knowing what we know now? ?

    ¡°Well boss, I must admit I was surprised when he admitted he served that dungeon. I can¡¯t see why an ocean dungeon would want to do us ill but... are you going with one of those companions he told us about? Can we trust them?¡±

    ? As far as companions are concerned we can. A companion is bound. As for guards, damn it, I¡¯ve got nothing that could stop a determined assault. I think we will have to go with them. ?

    ¡°What if I look into getting another security company to double team things. A kind of inner and outer detail.¡±

    ? Do that. ?

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Susie was gossiping with two of her best friends in the front garden of her house when a familiar looking jeep pulled into their driveway surprising her.

    ¡°MARY!¡± squealed Susie as she raced to embrace her stepsister. ¡°Welcome to Florida! How did you get Jeep here?¡±

    Mary grinned as she returned the hug. ¡°I used portals Susie, Jeep would have sulked if I¡¯d left him behind. And did you know your home is exactly twenty-three and a half kilometres from the sea?¡±

    ¡°Our home Mary. And is that important?¡±

    ¡°Yes, very much so,¡± replied Mary, even as she checked out her surroundings. Tessa stood ready by the jeep as her sister prowled round cloaked in shadows and illusions.

    * * *

    Jenny heard her daughter squeal and glanced out of the living room window. She was startled to see her stepdaughter¡¯s dull green jeep in their driveway. She made her way out to greet her guest.

    Mary saw her stepmother coming to greet her with a smile. She noticed something different and sharpened her sight. Then she gently disengaged herself from Susie and embraced Jenny with a wide smile. ¡°Congratulations mom. When¡¯s he due?¡±

 Chapter 110

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary watched with relief as the last of the ambassadors left her domain. The last two months had been profitable but oh so boring. ¡®At least I was able to practice keepin¡¯ my temper, or maybe it just made things difficult. Time to test my new defences on Tarifax.¡¯

    ? Trish, other me¡¯s busy. Got to go run the defences on Tarifax, Blackbeard¡¯s getting¡¯ too big for his britches again. Plan for our expansion, I¡¯ll see to it when I get back. ?

    Trish shuddered, ? Good luck, I¡¯ll keep an eye on our home. Are you taking those horrors you dreamt up? ?

    ? Heh... I just beefed up sometin¡¯ that¡¯s found in South America, oh an¡¯ made them smaller an¡¯ adapted them for the sea. You note I¡¯ve kept them tied to my domain unlike just ¡¯bout everythin¡¯ else. ?

    ? Just as well or you¡¯d make yourself hated. Those things are the stuff of nightmares. ?

    ? Well yeah. That¡¯s why they¡¯re so restricted an¡¯ why I keep ¡¯em dormant. ?

    * * * TARIFAX * * *

    Mary focused her attention at the heart of her realm and shifted through the portal to Tarifax. Once there she dismissed her avatar and settled into the spare core. In mere seconds she had control and knowledge of her domain. She moved the reinforcements she had bought to the southern border where Blackbeard¡¯s mercenaries were due.

    Mary used her powers over the sea to inspect the Sahuagin host. There were fifteen thousand of the pests, and over five thousand sharks. Mary grinned to herself and spawned another few thousand of her miniature new defenders. Then she waited, and while she waited she watched her admiral of the skies.

    The sky pirate fleet was coming from the north, presumably to force her to concentrate on two fronts. ¡®Stupid Blackbeard, Admiral Hellwing can handle that lot with no help from me, that just leaves me with the sharks and their parasites.¡¯

    In the skies to the north a slightly worn looking cargo airship was straining to outdistance the trouble that was following in its wake, clouds of smoke streaming from its funnel.

    Behind it came a mismatched fleet. Said fleet was not maintaining a tight formation, it was spread across the sky in a straggling line staining the skies with clouds of black smoke.

    Mary maintained an absent eye on the coming conflict as her two sky destroyers covered by six fighter-bombers moved to meet the pirates.

    The merchant airship dropped until it was almost skimming the surface of the sea as it made its best speed to the south as Hellwing¡¯s squadron passed it and opened fire. Mary felt like sighing, the seeker missiles were going to gang up on one or two targets, whichever had the biggest or worse insulated boilers. Yep there went the two biggest pirate ships.

    Mary snapped most of her attention to the southern border of her dungeon as the Sahuagin host arrived. ¡®Beep, but Blackbeard is dumb as a rock, no fineness, just numbers an¡¯ bludgeon away. This is hard, it would be so easy to become complacent.¡¯

    She noted absently that Hellwing learned fast, she was using her missiles sparingly to prevent wasting them in overkills. The laser beams were doing good work. Pity they would only be of limited use for the time being.

    It was time. The host was now too far into her domain to escape easily. She woke her much modified Candiru and sent them on their way while marshalling the rest of her defenders. The Sahuagin were taken by surprise, they started to react to the dungeon¡¯s defenders they could see and the clouds of squid ink that was hiding them. Their defenses did not see the tiny almost transparent fish that homed in of the scents they were programmed to seek.

    The agony that the Candiru¡¯s victims felt as the fish used their unorthodox points of access to their hosts was all the worst for the surprise. Then Mary¡¯s modifications made things worse as her Candiru entered a feeding frenzy and started dividing and multiplying endlessly in the presence of such abundant food stocks.

    Mary felt the first trickles of life energy flooding in as her Candiru-tribbles started killing their victims. That was when she released the rest of her defenders into the by now chaotic and broken ranks of the invading host.

    * * * EARTH ¨C PD / FBI * * *

    While they were waiting to board their Florida flight Jerry and Damien updated their notes and took stock of what they had learned.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Still nothing on that script, I suspect there will be a follow up on that,¡± observed Jerry.

    ¡°The visas are legit. There will be a review to see how they were granted,¡± added Damien.

    ¡°Do you think they will be revoked?¡±

    ¡°Probably, but maybe there will be a hold on that so we can follow them and learn more about them.¡±

    ¡°And what about the dungeons? I must admit they surprised me there. They both knew more and less than I expected. How the hell did they know about Goodyear?¡±

    ¡°So we have to see if we can get to investigate these so called traditionally formed dungeons. Cambodia and Venezuela. Not going to be easy.¡±

    Then they were closing down their tablets and lining up to board their flight.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mike got home to see his wife¡¯s car parked in their drive behind Mary¡¯s jeep. He managed to squeeze his car in alongside it and made his way to the house. He was met at the door by a smiling Jenny. ¡°Hi honey,¡± she said even as she grabbed hold of him in a hug. ¡°We¡¯re going to have a baby.¡±

    When Mike once again started taking notice of the world around him he noted that Susie and Mary were playing with two half grown winged kittens.

    * * *

    The following morning, straight after breakfast an excited Susie dragged Mary out of the house. She was introduced to her sister¡¯s posse. Lacy and Kitty were soon doing their best to help Susie drag a reluctant Mary to the mall.

    After an exhausting ¨C for Mary ¨C couple of hours shopping, Mary was thanking her stars for her storage rings. Lunch was a welcome relief and Mary treated herself to a seafood pizza while her new friends stuck to salads.

    They were finishing their lunch when the three boys from Susie¡¯s school showed up, Susie introduced the one in the lead as Jay and added that he was the team¡¯s fullback. The big one lurking just behind his shoulder was Chris, the tailback and the embarrassed looking one was Logan.

    Mary almost wrinkled her nose, at the smell of weed. She decided to evaluate them. She blinked in confusion. She took another look at the three stooges. ? Hey Bluey, you havin¡¯ me on? Jock an¡¯ Minions? How did you get those idiots to accept that? ?

    ? I offer what seems most appropriate. They just accepted without trying to change things. ?

    ? Minion I¡¯ve come across before, but where did Jock come from? ?

    ? Someone asked. Now the option exists. ?

    Jay puffed up his chest and angled his head into what he believed showed his best side. The girl was staring at him. He grinned at her making sure to show his white teeth.

    Chris nudged Logan as he watched Jay go to work. In his opinion it didn¡¯t matter how rich that big bitch was, he preferred his chicks smaller than himself. Susie and her friends were more to his taste, pity they were still too young.

    Logan for his part was feeling uneasy, there was a small insistent voice coming from his lizard brain screaming ¡®Run! Hide! Danger!¡¯.

    Jay grinned lazily as he and his minions settled around the table. ¡°What do you girls say? How about we go watch a movie?¡±

    Things quickly grew ever more boring and irritating for Mary. She had no interest in football and that seemed to be almost all that was on the table. That, and some truly asinine tropes that grated with her experience on how things should be.

    Feeling that unless she managed a bit of time to calm down she would do something unfortunate she rather abruptly said, ¡°Excuse me, but got to visit the rest room, back soon,¡± and with that Mary rose and strode off.

    On her way back she spotted something and grinned. ¡®Might work, an¡¯ it¡¯ll really bug them.¡¯ She thought to herself.

    ¡°Excuse me, would you sell me your hat? I¡¯m bein¡¯ pestered by some idiots an¡¯ I figure if I turn up back at the table wearin¡¯ that they¡¯ll flip.¡±

    The young man she¡¯d stopped looked up at her and grinned. ¡°You¡¯ll make enemies. Are you sure you¡¯re willing to risk it?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, an¡¯ yeah if the wrong people see me it will make waves. But I¡¯m peeved an¡¯ I¡¯d rather not break my sister¡¯s friends.¡±

    ¡°Call me Roy, here I¡¯ll lend it to you. Mind if I tag along to watch the fun?¡±

    ¡°Name¡¯s Mary. It¡¯s a free country, or so they tell me.¡± Mary accepted the red cap and set it on her head before heading back towards the food court.

    = = O = =

    Roy Anderson had been trailing round the mall for several hours making himself visible so the other members of his team would be able to blend in easier. The whole team had been finding amusement where they could. He grinned as he listened to the team on his earbud.

    ¡°Next time Heidi drags me round a mall I¡¯ve got to get one of those storage rings,¡± muttered Drew.

    ¡°She¡¯d kill you for spoiling half her fun,¡± replied Marie.

    Then they redeployed as their principal headed for the ladies, Marie slipped in just ahead of her. After the expected delay she emerged looking less grim.

    When Ms Silvestre changed course to intercept him Roy worried that he had been spotted or that she was going to take issue with his choice of headgear. So her actual question startled him. ¡°Excuse me, would you sell me your hat? I¡¯m bein¡¯ pestered by some idiots an¡¯ I figure if I turn up back at the table wearin¡¯ that they¡¯ll flip.¡±

    Roy couldn¡¯t prevent himself from grinning. ¡°You¡¯ll make enemies. Are you sure you¡¯re willing to risk it?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Yeah, an¡¯ yeah if the wrong people see me it will make waves. But I¡¯m peeved an¡¯ I¡¯d rather not break my sister¡¯s friends.¡±

    Roy suppressed his desire to laugh, especially as he recalled some of the comments on her file. ¡°Call me Roy, here I¡¯ll lend it to you. Mind if I tag along to watch the fun?¡±

    ¡°Name¡¯s Mary. It¡¯s a free country, or so they tell me.¡±

    Roy tagged along as Mary took his red cap and set it on her head.

    ¡°So I take it you don¡¯t like your sister¡¯s friends, what about her beliefs?¡±

    ¡°Bunch of gold digging scum... Got a good chance of educatin¡¯ Susie.¡±

    ¡°Are you looking to go into politics?¡±

    Roy couldn¡¯t avoid chuckling at the appalled look she gave him. ¡°Stop jokin¡¯... I¡¯d be driven to murder an¡¯ mayhem in no time. Democracy is great for most places but I¡¯m not getting¡¯ involved. Might need to buy a couple of pols but that¡¯s my limit on Earth.¡±

    Roy blinked in surprise. What really surprised him is that she was telling the truth as she saw it. His new truth reading ability took her statement as truth. Then they arrived at the food court and the reactions were all she could have wished.

 Chapter 111

    * * * MARS ¨C MARY (Parthia) * * *

    Mary stepped through the new portal, and grinned happily at Hawai¡¯iloa. ? Hi, how are you finding Mars? ?

    ? Too cold. But it is beautiful. And I was the first sapient from Earth to step on its surface. ? Hawai¡¯iloa bounced on his toes and looked around like an excited schoolboy. ? Is this valley to your taste? ?

    Mary glanced around and spread her influence. Soon the upper valley was hers. Then she steepened and reinforced the slopes. She raised a dam at the end of the claimed area. While she was doing this a score of her crabmen were fetching the pieces of two large mirror satellites through from her dungeon on Fragatta.

    Hawai¡¯iloa moved to see the correct stowage of the orbital mirrors to be. Mary for her part saw to the erecting and strengthening of the clear dome over her valley.

    A minor change to her portal and the relocation of the opening on Fragatta turned it into the source of a massive jet of water complete with some bewildered and battered sea creatures.

    Hawai¡¯iloa observed the arrival of the torrent of seawater that very slowly started to fill the upper valley.

    Mary waited until the overloaded Far Voyager lifted sluggishly and left her valley before she finished growing the reinforced transparent cover that formed the dome to keep all the air and water from evaporating. She watched impassively as slowly the upper valley filled. Next she called a second portal into existence and watched as a howling gale poured into her newest dungeon extension.

    Now that she owned the largest ¨C and only ¨C liquid water lake on Mars she felt more comfortable. ¡®Better. But it¡¯s still too small. It needs to be much bigger yet,¡¯ she mused as she eyed the rest of the valley beyond her dam. ¡®Gonna be hard, lucky the gravity is so weak. Guess I need something the size of lake Superior. Well, got time yet.¡¯ And she grinned.

    * * * EARTH ¨C HOUSTON * * *

    The watchers in the mission room watched with bated breath as the exoskeletal aliens proceeded with their maintenance of their Mars orbiter. The mission controller breathed a sigh of relief as his instruments told him that the orbiter¡¯s tanks were once again fully charged. The old batteries had already been replaced, as had the old computer. The new programming had booted up and the orbiter was now going through its self-test routine.

    ¡°No problems sir, she¡¯s all ready to go,¡± said Bailey from his station.

    The mission controller mentally wiped his brow. He had been extremely dubious when he had been told someone in the white house had come to an agreement with the aliens for them to fix and update this old orbiter. But it seemed that against all his expectations the aliens had done their part. He wondered what they had been promised.

    They waited until the aliens left the vicinity of the orbiter and returned to their bizarre looking starship before they started nudging their renovated orbiter into a new orbit. It was time to see what else the aliens were up to.

    * * *

    ¡°Holy Shit!¡± exclaimed someone as they came into sight of the massive satellite in stationary orbit over what looked like a water filled valley. It looked flimsy in the extreme, but it was just a massive mirror that was being used to focus sunlight down on the valley.

    The aliens ignored them as they worked on a second five kilometre wide mirror.

    ¡°Sir! Check the other camera. There are people down on the surface. They look like humans!¡± stated an agitated Bailey.

    ¡°What! That¡¯s ridiculous...¡± said someone else.

    The mission controller tightened his lips; the image was good but not that good. Human sized bipeds. Yes that he was willing to accept. ¡°The image isn¡¯t that good Bailey. But it does look like there are other aliens down there. What I¡¯d like to know is why almost the entire area under that dome is water.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC * * *

    The scientific ship Galileo was barely moving as it recorded the huge thirty meter long fish that were ploughing through the rapidly diminishing accumulation of floating plastic waste. The fish had been growing turtle-like shells out of an organic plastic.

    Samples taken when the fish had been tagged confirmed the scientist¡¯s original supposition that they had evolved from whale sharks.

    Red, his shaggy greying shoulder length hair blowing in the wind, was currently watching the mid sized cargo ship that was heading straight towards their subjects. He was somewhat concerned that it had come over the horizon and not deviated in its course. Red dropped his binoculars to hang around his neck and made his way to the bridge.

    He found the captain watching the bridge¡¯s radar repeater. ¡°What do we know of that ship captain? Have you warned them away?¡±Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    ¡°We have established contact Red. The ship is the Panamanian registered Ocean Harvester II. It belongs to Ocean Clearance and Salvage Inc. They claim they are here to both relieve their harvesters of their shells, and check their health. They claim one of their harvesters has pups that need to be freed.¡±

    The captain looked at the stunned looking scientist. ¡°Fred¡¯s been checking. Ocean Clearance and Salvage exists. It¡¯s a Hawaii corporation and it sells mercury and other metals they collect from the sea. They use genetically engineered creatures.¡±

    Red glanced at the shelled fish that were continuing to plough through the waves. ¡°Ridiculous. How can they possibly expect us to believe that?¡±

    ¡°They gave us a frequency and a challenge. Those fish are all tagged and wired. They can be probed. We did. It states they are the property of Ocean Clearance. Also each has a serial number with a date of birth.¡±

    Red watched in impotent fury as the ship he was watching slowed. Then about a dozen naked people dove into the sea from its deck. Red¡¯s mouth dropped open when the individuals changed, some in the air and others after diving into the sea. A dozen dolphins went frolicking amongst the modified whale sharks. Some changed back to being human again and scrambled onto the big shells.

    Red left the bridge of the Galileo and hurried to gather some of his team. He gave them a brief explanation as they prepared their inflatable. Not long after Red and four of his colleagues were heading towards the harvesting team and their subjects.

    One of the dolphins spotted them and moved to meet them. When they slowed the dolphin changed and was replaced by a man treading water. ¡°Hiya, well met ladies and gents. I¡¯m Rupert Taxis.¡±

    Red fumed internally, ¡°I¡¯m Dr Simon Weismann of Institute of Marine Science from the University of Auckland. I¡¯m in charge of the team currently studying these unique fish.¡±

    Rupert grinned, ¡°Unique is correct mate.¡± He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, ¡°Those monsters belong to Mother. She made them after all. She¡¯s pissed at the state of the oceans on this planet and has decided to do something about it.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re fish. Not monsters,¡± insisted Red.

    ¡°About sixty percent whale shark admixed with leatherback and squid. All that plus some plain crazy divine inspiration. They¡¯re monsters, and you better believe it. Unlike the whale shark they are both capable of, and willing to defend themselves.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t claim a fish. And what are you?¡±

    Rupert laughed, ¡°If they see us as their masters or partners, that¡¯s all that matters, right? And we are weredolphins. Free wanderers upon the oceans, always ready to help Mother.¡±

    Red glared at him while a couple of his team filmed everything they could see.

    ¡°Feel free to study our monsters Dr. I¡¯m sure Mother will appreciate your papers. Just don¡¯t get too intrusive or you might regret it. They are monsters, and they will defend themselves if they perceive they have been attacked.¡±

    Then Rupert changed again and took off with a series of leaps and bounds and rejoined his pod.

    In just over an hour the big fish were swimming freely, one now accompanied by two young and the discarded shells were being swung aboard the Ocean Harvester II.

    * * * EARTH ¨C ARENA OF BLOOD * * *

    Olivier Broussette or Olli as he was known to his friends was back. He had spent the previous month researching dungeons, and to be brutally honest he had been extremely frustrated. The information available was scanty and inconsistent.

    He had decided to err on the side of caution given this dungeon¡¯s name. So now here he was watching as the forest spirit he had summoned some hours earlier moved ¨C reluctantly into the dungeon. The endless chorus of frogs ceased the moment his spirit entered the dungeon. And once again Olli saw:

    { You have found a dungeon: The Arena of Blood }

    As ordered his spirit hovered just inside the boundary of the dungeon, ready to bolt. There was a rustling in the dense grove and a sharp-toothed angular dryad emerged to confront the spirit. She looked beyond his spirit and regarded Olli with flat black eyes.

    Olli stiffened his spine and stepped forward until he was just one step away from the terrain claimed by the dungeon. ¡°May I speak with you or whomever is responsible for this marvel?¡±

    The dryad just stared at him, Olli started to feel uncomfortable. After what seemed like an endless wait while several frogs emerged to watch the intruders, both on the ground and in the trees. Then there were further rustlings in the undergrowth, and a burly shaven headed man moved to stand beside the dryad.

    Olli jerked his attention back from the blowpipe carrying frogs. ¡°Good morning, I was hoping we could get along. I am extremely impressed with what you achieved here. I was hoping you could help me with some other blighted areas.¡±

    ¡°I have nothing against getting along. You can call me Frog, most do.¡±

    Olli opened and closed his mouth a few times. ¡°What¡¯s with the frogs... Sorry, but while I know about dryads, I¡¯ve never seen frogs with weapons before.¡±

    Frog laughed. ¡°Mother gifted me with them, they¡¯re not as flexible as her man-rats but they share many of their abilities, and I like them better.¡±

    ¡°Um, do you want to sit in my car while we talk, the air-con works well.¡±

    ¡°No. Sorry but I¡¯m not as reckless as Mother. I have no intention of leaving my domain.¡±

    Olli blinked, he looked round and sighed, ¡°Does that mean you can¡¯t help me?¡±

    ¡°Not necessarily,¡± replied Frog as he produced his smart phone. ¡°Let¡¯s exchange numbers and I¡¯ll get back to you after I¡¯ve spoken to a few people.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary watched her new acquaintance out of the corner of her eye, there was something familiar in how he held himself. ¡°So tell me Roy, you in the army?¡±

    Roy looked insulted, ¡°No, I¡¯m a marine.¡±

    Mary hid her grin and reclaimed her chair, ¡°Hey Susie, this is Roy, a new friend. C¡¯mon grab yourself a chair Roy.¡±

    Roy hesitated for an instant, before receiving a quick prompt via his miniature earbud radio. So he smiled at Susie and her friends and dragged up an empty chair and sat next to Mary.

    Jay was quite obviously irked. Mary couldn¡¯t help grinning again. She could almost see the cogs go round in his head. He now knew he had made a fool of himself with some of the idiocies he¡¯d been spouting.

    ¡°So what is Roy, isn¡¯t he a bit old?¡±

    Mary restrained herself; then she forced herself to relax slightly. ¡°Roy is a journeyman ranked Warrior. Roy the guy with the big mouth is an apprentice ranked Jock named Jay. With him are Chris and Logan, both of them are apprentice ranked Minions. My sister is as yet unranked and she¡¯s called Susie. Lacy and Kitty are likewise unranked as yet. Logan has the bonus ability Dangersense and I suspect that¡¯s why he¡¯s being so quiet.¡±

    Roy noted that his teammates bantering had ceased. He felt a shiver of apprehension.

    ¡°So what are you? You said I was an apprentice ranked Minion, what are you?¡± asked Chris.

    ¡°Me? Why I¡¯m a minor goddess,¡± answered Mary with a giggle.

    Once again Roy felt his truth reading ability accept that statement as truth.

 Chapter 112

    * * * MARS & EARTH (HAWAII) ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary was finally satisfied. The complex of valleys has finally been claimed, dammed and shaped. The domes were all in place and the orbital mirrors were brightening and warming the days. The waters were still pouring in. Her Mars home away from home was finally comfortable. Not that Mars would ever be anything but a folly. But it was a nice bribe to hold out to the nations on Earth.

    She cast one last look over the filling valleys and sighed as she no longer had to cling to the portal. Beep Bluey an¡¯ his latest limitations. It did balance some of her power as a dungeon though it did nothing to limit her as a goddess.

    She turned and nodded to her new overseer, ¡°¨¤ bient?t Jaques, give ¡¯em hell.¡±

    ¡°I will Mother, got a nice crackly radio ready to chat with them lot up there,¡± replied the crab man with a hissing laugh.

    Mary grinned, gave him a thumbs up and transited the portal to Fragatta, then she lifted one shoulder and decided it was time to give Tod the heads up, and to remove her controls before he rooted and discovered them for himself. As her other me was busy in Florida, she decided to head to Maui and deal with it herself.

    * * *

    After hugging her mother, Mary enjoyed a comfortable couple of hours with her. They chatted and gossiped before Mary headed out of the door. She couldn¡¯t help chuckling at the scene at the mall. She produced her phone and phoned Tod.

    ¡°Hiya Tod, Mary here. Can I have a word with you in private? Why don¡¯t you come round to my place?¡±

    Tod glanced at the phone, and at the report that constantly updated itself on the wall mounted faux-television. ¡°Your place? But aren¡¯t you in Florida?¡±

    ¡°Yes I am, and also no ¡¯cause I¡¯m home too.¡±

    Tod clicked the remote opening a window on the big monitor showing an altercation in a mall in Florida. He glanced in confusion at his phone and flicked it to speakerphone mode.

    ¡°How can you be next door Mary?¡±

    ¡°Simple, I am. I have something you need to know Tod, so come on round and prove to yourself I¡¯m here in Maui.¡±

    Lieutenant Anna Partlow looked from the screen to Tod¡¯s phone and back before saying, ¡°Take someone with you to watch.¡±

    ¡°Hey Anna no fair. Got somethin¡¯ for Tod, not for anyone else. You¡¯re welcome to keep watch on the house. But that¡¯s it.¡±

    Anna slapped her forehead in exasperation at forgetting a speakerphone worked both ways. ¡°Fine, He¡¯ll be there shortly and Art will stay at the door.¡±

    * * *

    When Tod and Art arrived at the house¡¯s front door, Mary open it and grinned at them, ¡°Won¡¯t ber long Art, sorry you have to wait for a bit. Come on in Tod.¡±

    Tod hesitated briefly when he stepped through the door. ? Got the dungeon warnin¡¯? Watcha think Tod? ?

    ? Yes I did Mary. Why have you withdrawn your domain from the yard? ?

    ? Too many people have evolved enough to get Bluey¡¯s warnings. I don¡¯t want my dungeon front an¡¯ centre yet. ?

    Mary led Tod to the lounge and waved him to a chair. When he sat she dropped into her favourite armchair. ? Look Tod, got to warn you Bluey¡¯s uppin¡¯ his game, he seems in a hurry. Thing is you have at best two months before you move from bein¡¯ a proto-dungeon to bein¡¯ a dungeon. ?

    Then when Tod was processing this unwelcome news she reached and made a couple of adjustments before withdrawing her controls. Tod slumped slightly before jerking fully awake.

    ¡°Are you sure Mary?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Ask Bluey yourself. Personally I suspect you have ¡¯bout a month.¡±

    Mary watched as Tod consulted the System, he blanched and looked worried. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Mary, but when I become a dungeon the cat¡¯ll be out of the bag.¡±

    ¡°It is already, partially thanks to Bluey. But I¡¯ve been careless too. However, I have a firm relationship with the aliens. I can grant access to the Moon an¡¯ Mars. Got liftwood, not much but enough to sell some full size logs. Then I have access to a livin¡¯ world. It¡¯s a bit chilly at the moment but it¡¯s getting¡¯ better. Think the governments of Earth can cut a deal?¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Tod just looked totally overwhelmed. ¡°What do you want?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to have to withdraw from Earth. Got family here.¡±

    * * * EARTH (FLORIDA) ¨C MARY * * *

    Roy accompanied the strutting girl as she was escorted out of the mall; Chris had not taken the goddess crack well. And naturally considering where they were the fact that Mary had been wearing the MAGA hat had turned her into the natural scapegoat. Lieutenant James had been cursing quietly in his ear ever since, that and identifying the girl¡¯s private security detail. They had begun coalescing out of the crowd in ones and twos.

    The lieutenant and his detail had identified fifteen so far, and specialist Hooper has been unable to gauge their levels. That meant they were all over level thirty. Where in hell had the girl found so many high level warriors and rogues. There was even a paladin and a cleric amongst them. And they still hadn¡¯t spotted the leopard girls.

    * * *

    Mary sauntered out of the mall; she was smiling even as she ignored the two very nervous mall security amateurs who were escorting her out. All because the poor little idiot had had his feelings hurt and the security moron was a flake. She smiled at her Silverclaw pack, they had learned how to blend in on Earth, and their stealth was impeccable. Tessa and Lissa had done a sterling job, the pack had adapted well. No one would ever guess they had grown up as outcasts on Parthia.

    As soon as she stepped out of the mall she turned and stared at the two rather unimpressive looking mall guards. Flameheart loomed on her right.

    Mary produced a calling card and tossed it at the feet of the guards. ¡°Show that to the manager, an¡¯ tell him I will be boycottin¡¯ his malls. All his malls an¡¯ enterprises. No way in beep will MagiTech, Ocean Clearance and Salvage or Portals plc ever do business with him or any company connected with him.¡±

    ? Assa, keep a eye on my sister. Careful with the other guards. Time I taught some of the soldier boys how to use their abilities. I¡¯m sick of seein¡¯ warriors and rangers who are no better than their well trained unawakened counterparts. ?

    Mary grinned as she turned and headed for her jeep, she had enjoyed seeing the mall guards cringe when Flameheart had unleashed his intimidation. The skills of the second of a pack that had survived and thrived despite all the efforts of the adventurer¡¯s guild on Parthia were formidable. She glanced out of the corner of her eye and was impressed that Roy was still sticking to her.

    ¡°So tell me Roy, how well can you use your Truth Readin¡¯ ability? Had it long?¡±

    Roy stumbled as his attention was jerked from the study of his surroundings. He had managed to identify several more of Mary¡¯s unexpected guards.

    ¡°How? Ah¡ª I got it when I was integrated by the System. I cost me a small penalty on my experience gains but it sounded cool.¡±

    ¡°How have you trained it? An¡¯ for that matter are you trainin¡¯ sure shot an¡¯ furious charge?¡±

    ¡°What? How can you see I have that? The system showed me what to do.¡±

    ¡°Hmph! Bluey can only give you the basics. All abilities can an¡¯ should be trained to improve ¡¯em.¡± Mary reached into one of her storage devices and passed him a skill crystal. ¡°Press that skill crystal to your forehead. It has the more basic warrior skills.¡±

    ? We¡¯re headin¡¯ for Lewis¡¯ new store on the front. ?

    Mary jumped into her jeep. Roy noted that the jeep started up while they were still a few paces from it. Something the reports had mentioned but that he hadn¡¯t believed.

    * * * EARTH (FBI) ¨C JERRY & DAMIEN * * *

    Jerry really hated being in Florida in August. He was more into winter sports, if he wasn¡¯t careful he¡¯d end up lobster red and peeling. He gloried in their SUV¡¯s air-con. He waited quietly while his partner checked in with HQ.

    Damien looked puzzled. ¡°Hey boss, we have conflicting reports. Ms Silvestre is reported to be in two places at once. She¡¯s in her jeep heading towards the seafront, the detail assigned to her are maintaining contact. It appears she has her own private security. And then Ms Silvestre is talking with two members of her Hawaii detail at home.¡±

    Jerry glanced at Damien, ¡°Stop joking. We have a difficult enough task in front of us as it is.¡±

    ¡°Sorry Jerry, I¡¯m not joking. We have reports placing her in two places at this precise moment in time. I don¡¯t understand how such a balls up could happen but...¡±

    Jerry spared Damien another look before putting their SUV in drive and setting off. Jerry accepted Damien¡¯s directions and they parked near the waterfront not too far from their target¡¯s jeep. They moved along the sidewalk checking out the neighbourhood as they went.

    Their destination turned out to be a small former shop. The sign in the window informed them that today was the grand opening of this branch of Portals. Jerry and Damien shared a speculative look and entered.

    ¡°Good morning sirs, how may I help?¡±

    Jerry looked at the woman sitting behind a counter. The shop seemed to be empty. There was the counter, and next to it what looked like two sliding metal doors.

    ¡°Excuse me, but just what is this place?¡± asked Damien.

    The woman set her book down on the counter. ¡°This is a branch office of portals. You are in luck, as this is our first day, you may use our portal for fifteen dollars.¡±

    ¡°And?¡±

    The woman just looked at them. Jerry looked to Damien. ¡°They came here, right? And they haven¡¯t left yet?¡±

    Damien nodded. So Jerry came to a decision and bought two tickets. The woman smiled perfunctorily and pressed a button beneath her counter. The door on the right hissed open showing a large room. The two agents stepped through warily and nearly lost their balance in the Moon¡¯s reduced gravity. They found themselves in a large circular room with several closed doors. And one large open archway.

    The twin doorway they had come through was labelled ¡®Panama City, Florida.¡¯. Many twin doorways were obviously not in use but they did find several with labels. Such as ¡®London, England.¡¯ ¡®Paris, France.¡¯ ¡®Cancun, Mexico.¡¯ ¡®Portland, Oregon.¡¯ ¡°Oh Shit!¡± exclaimed Jerry.

 Chapter 113

    * * * EARTH / MOON ¨C JERRY & DAMIEN (FBI) * * *

    Jerry was feeling exhausted, he spared Damien a look as his partner stepped through the portal labelled ¡®Singapore¡¯. They had been through all the active portals and as far as they could prove, they all went where they claimed.

    They had also discovered that as this was the first day of operation the price was heavily discounted. They both felt tired and drained. It was as if the portals cost energy to use. The leaflets provided by the uninterested clerks manning the shops did state that it cost mana to use the portals, and that no one should use more than one pair of portals in an hour. Something they had ignored.

    And then there was the fact that the shops accepted any official currency, and were set up to check the official exchange rate. The shops did not make change if paid in a ¡®foreign¡¯ currency.

    After one last wide eyed look around the room the two agents proceeded through the large archway, this room was somewhat smaller than the portal room and seemed to be set up to be some sort of waiting office with several secure positions to attend the public. It sort of reminded them of a bank. They went to the only manned position. The dog girl cocked her head when they showed up at her window and just waited.

    Jerry showed her his badge; Damian did the same, ¡°We would like to speak with Ms Silvestre please.¡±

    ¡°I work for Portals sir, not MagiTech. Let me check.¡± She then flipped a switch and spoke into a phone. After about five minutes she dropped the phone and flipped the switch again.

    ¡°I was told to remind you your agency has no jurisdiction off the Earth. In fact I believe it has none outside the US of A. Please return to the portal room and take the portal that has a flashing amber light over it. You will be met. I do hope one of you can speak French.¡±

    Jerry gave the cheerful looking dog girl a sour look and headed back to the portal room, they took the suggested portal and stumbled at the unexpected gravity. Jerry looked at the impassive looking alien who awaited them. Somehow the lack of expression mandated by the being¡¯s exoskeleton made it seem even more alien. And naturally it addressed them in French.

    ¡°Good day, please follow me,¡± it said as it rather abruptly turned and headed towards a rather normal looking door.

    Damien gave a quick translation as they followed, then he added, ¡°We¡¯re in a new dungeon Jerry, we are now in Blue Lagoon.¡±

    Jerry looked at Damien and nodded his understanding even as he looked round, they were in a similar portal room to the one on the moon. It was considerably smaller and the labels, not surprisingly, were all in an unknown script. It bugged Jerry that it looked like the script on the crates they had seen at the adventurer¡¯s guild.

    The door opened into a short passage, one wall of which was mostly glass showing an underwater scene. There were a couple of spindly fish swimming past. They seemed to have four pairs of fins and just looked wrong.

    After a short trip in a lift they were ushered into a luxurious office. Mary was standing gazing out of the crystal dome that enclosed the room; she seemed to be communing with a pair of dolphins. She turned when they entered; their guide bowed to Mary and said something in a guttural sounding language. She grinned and replied.

    Then she turned to them and said, ¡°Welcome to Mars gentlemen. I understand you wanted to see me. What do you guys want anyway?¡±Stolen novel; please report.

    Jerry ground his teeth in frustration. He watched the alien move to stand slightly behind and to the side of Mary. ¡°You must see you can¡¯t just open portals between different countries. The US must have control of its borders. And, just what is your relationship with the aliens?¡±

    ¡°Lewis is the one in charge of the Mock Turtle dungeon. I acknowledge he tends to do what I want. The portals are a way of farming mana. The cash is nice too. We¡¯re not stoppin¡¯ you from settin¡¯ up immigration controls. As for the Aliens, they¡¯re good friends.¡±

    ¡°We? Who is we? And how are you here, on Mars?¡±

    Mary grinned, ¡°Why Lewis Carroll an¡¯ me. Who else? As for Mars, it is too dry for my taste but I figure there¡¯s a market for access. Just as soon be shot of it frankly, there¡¯s plenty of better real estate around.¡±

    ¡°Where? Venus is a hellhole and the outer system is too cold?¡± asked Damien.

    Mary laughed. ¡°Didn¡¯t mean the solar system, where did you think the aliens came from anyway? Or the ice skippers out there,¡± she waved at a school of the strange fishes that seemed to be watching what was happening in the dome.

    ¡°But ¨C but the stars are too far. The speed of light¡ª¡± said Jerry.

    ¡°You¡¯re on Mars, how long did it take you to step through the portal?¡± asked Mary.

    Jerry felt as if the breath had been knocked out of him, he looked up at the big teenager and tried to gather his wits. ¡®Damn cocksure teenagers, they always seemed to be convinced they know everything. How is she doing these things? We have to control her for her own good.¡¯

    * * * MARS ¨C ROY ANDERSON * * *

    Roy watched the scene in the glorified office and wondered what the girl was up to. He was still stunned by what had just happened. They had arrived at the shop and one of Mary¡¯s bodyguards had put on a ring and changed into a duplicate of Mary. She had jumped out of the jeep and headed into the shop with one of the leopard girls.

    Then they had driven round the back and entered through a loading gate at the back of the shop. They had arrived at a garage on Mars! And they¡¯d been joined by an assortment of vehicles carrying all the bodyguards. They had all been speaking a language he was unable to recognise, and he prided himself on at least recognising the principal languages.

    He had been offered another two skill crystals. He now had another headache but now he could speak ¡®common trade (Parthia)¡¯; and he was truly scared of the implications of his truth reading ability.

    He watched the scene in front of him and it scared him. The two FBI agents hadn¡¯t a clue that part of the room they were in was hidden by an illusion. And that they were being covered by more than a score of heavily armed goons.

    The Silverclaw pack scared him, he recognised veterans, and fanatics, and they were both.

    ¡®Damn it, the girl¡¯s playing with the fibs. And how is she controlling this dungeon? And what was it with that job offer?¡¯ wondered Roy as he watched the alien bow to the girl. ¡®Mother? Why is an alien calling her mother? Why do all of her followers... yes followers,¡¯ decided Roy, ¡®call her mother?¡¯

    * * * EARTH ¨C TOD * * *

    Tod and Art made their way back to their base. ¡°Well I recon that was Mary. So what¡¯s going on in Florida?¡± asked Art.

    Tod looked at him and made a helpless gesture.

    ¡°What¡¯s up Tod? You seem ¨C distracted.¡±

    ¡°Had some unexpected news, and I¡¯m going to have to think about it. I have to talk to the Commander. It¡¯s tricky.¡±

    * * *

    Commander Meadows raised an eyebrow and looked at his second, lieutenant Partlow, then they both looked back at Tod. ¡°So when were you planning to let us know about this proto-dungeon business. And that mean Mary¡¯s one too?¡±

    Tod almost slumped. ¡°She was. At least I assume so but it seemed irrelevant.¡±

    ¡°And now you have a month or two of ¨C of mobility? Then you become ¨C what?¡± asked lt. Anna Partlow somewhat incredulously.

    Tod drew in a deep breath, ¡°Then I become a dungeon core and start setting up my dungeon. I have some ideas, but they are vague. I just wasn¡¯t expecting this.¡±

    ¡°Fine. More problems. I¡¯ll take this up the line and we¡¯ll talk again tomorrow. And you¡¯re both sure you spoke with Mary?¡± asked Meadows.

    ¡°Yes sir.¡±

    * * *

    Late on the following morning Meadows called Tod into a private conference.

    ¡°Sergeant Harmond, I¡¯m sorry to have to tell you that you have been detached from this detail. You are being reassigned and you are to report to Area 51.¡± Meadows looked defeated somehow, ¡°Good luck Tod. I suspect you¡¯ll need lots of it.¡±

 Chapter 114

    * * * MARS ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary was having fun, she was in her dungeon and she could feel the irritation of her visitors. She was enjoying pushing them. Bluey had helped her paint herself into a corner and now she had to make the best of it.

    It was time to show these agents part of her power. Tod was bound to spill the beans so anywhere outside her domain while on Earth was going to be ¨C difficult. But that did leave the oceans.

    But she had these two agents and the scared soldier boy with the Silverclaw pack. She knew her mama and Flip were on their way to the party on Parthia. They were with her other me. And the rest of the pack was escorting her papa and his family there too. Now she had to keep these guys quiet for a few hours more and it would be a done deal.

    ¡°So what else do you guys want? If I understand you don¡¯t want me to open portals for cheap instantaneous travel. Do you also want me to restrict sales to the US government? Tellin¡¯ you that ain¡¯t happenin¡¯.¡±

    Mary repressed a grin as she saw the muscles in Jerry¡¯s jaw bunch as he ground his teeth. ¡°It would help. I know you have been willing to help our nation in the past. Why not with this. No country wants to loose control of their borders.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough. Already told you you¡¯re welcome to set up immigration checkpoints.¡±

    ¡°But Ms Silvestre, there isn¡¯t room in most of those little shops.¡±

    ¡°Talk with Mr Carroll. Maybe he¡¯ll allow you an¡¯ others to set up in the terminal on the moon. For a price naturally, an¡¯ he¡¯s a Brit so the US won¡¯t get a free pass.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s safe. We got rather tired just stepping through those portals.¡±

    Mary leaned back in her chair and grinned again. ¡°Safe enough. You got enough mana you pass, if you don¡¯t then you stay put. No chance of one of our portals strippin¡¯ a user of all their mana.¡±

    ¡°You need to warn people about the need for mana. And why do the portals need mana anyway?¡±

    ¡°Why? Anyway says so on the ticket. They¡¯re magic, where do you think they get the power they need to bridge space from?¡±

    ¡°Look Ms Silvestre you don¡¯t understand the give and take needed to run a government. You don¡¯t want to set yourself up against the government. You have been cooperative so far. Please don¡¯t change.¡±

    Mary laughed. ¡°Guess I don¡¯t at that. I run my realm as an absolute monarch after all. An¡¯ my conquests are run by my military.¡±

    ¡°Please, this is nothing to joke about,¡± Jerry ground out in frustration.

    ¡°Tell you what, I¡¯m hostin¡¯ a reception an¡¯ party day after tomorrow. An¡¯ it¡¯s not on Earth. I herby invite you an¡¯ up to four other people you choose to fetch along. Be at any of the portal shops tomorrow between twelve an¡¯ sixteen o¡¯clock. Fetch what you need for a two day stay.¡± And with that Tessa dropped her illusion revealing the grinning Silverclaw pack.

    As she watched her guests being escorted out of her presence Mary added. ¡°Hey Roy, you¡¯re also invited. Feel free to fetch your significant other and up to four other friends.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C TOD * * *

    Tod looked round his room. His bags were packed and he was feeling somewhat torn. He had contacted his new command and enquired as to what they were planning to do about the fact that for the moment he was still a sea human. They had replied with a list of all the swimming pools in the area.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Further enquiries to the pools themselves had confirmed his suspicions they still used chlorine to purify the water.

    He was torn. He could see major problems ahead. The water breathing could be resolved but the lack of knowledge shown by his new post was worrying in the extreme. He just didn¡¯t trust them. He decided to go for a last walk in the park.

    Tod sat on one of the benches, as far from the high fencing that was guarding the dinosaur dungeon. He studied the security measures that isolated the dungeon and shuddered. Finally he fished out his phone and called Mary.

    ¡°Hello Tod. How did the revelation go?¡±

    ¡°So so. Can we talk?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but you must know all my calls are bein¡¯ monitored. If you have anythin¡¯ tricky to say use the Dungeon Exchange chat function.¡±

    ¡°No, no need for that. Just calling to say goodbye and let you know I¡¯m off to Area 51.¡±

    ¡°What! No way could you drag me there. Maybe you¡¯ll find out if the rumours ¡¯bout aliens is true or not.¡±

    ¡°Nope, all the aliens are swanning out by Mars. All that¡¯s out there is a desert and chlorinated swimming pools.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not good. Have you told ¡¯em ¡¯bout bein¡¯ a sea human?¡±

    ¡°Yes but¡ª got to go I¡¯ll be seeing you.¡±

    ¡°Bye Tod. Luck.¡±

    Tod looked at his phone and sighed. He glanced at the imprisoned dungeon once again and started searching on his System interface. ¡®So that¡¯s what Mary meant... Um...¡¯

    * * * EARTH ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Unamed #26 (PrD): Mary? This is Tod. Can we talk? Is this safe.

    Blue Lagoon: Ish... Hiya Tod only dungeons, proto-dungeons and companions can get on here. I don¡¯t think any of them reports to one of the governments.

    Unamed #26 (PrD): As I was saying they want me to establish in Area 51 but I don¡¯t trust them. Any ideas where I¡¯d be safe from them?

    Blue Lagoon: I could help you with defences and monsters if you want. There are other possibilities.

    Blackrock (PrD): Oh Wow! Area 51. That would be so cool!

    Alligator Haven: Idiot! Tod¡¯s right to be worried ¡®bout the fed.

    Unamed #26 (PrD): I¡¯m looking at the dinosaur dungeon. No way do I want to be fenced in like that. What other options?

    Blue Lagoon: Other worlds. Parthia, Tarifax or Fragatta. Then there¡¯s the Moon and Mars. Don¡¯t recomend the latter two. Dungeons need locals to thrive.

    Dinosaur Caves: Yes, the regulation of visitors I¡¯m under is starting to get crippling.

    Blackrock (PrD): But Area 51!

    Arena of Blood: Don¡¯t recomend Tarifax. They have dungeon slavery down to an art and the pollution is terrible.

    Blue Lagoon: True, and Fragatta is kinda cold though it is getting better. If you want off Earth Parthia is your best bet.

    Winter Wolf: If you pick Parthia you must be prepared to kill adventurers. But in moderation, you¡¯ll need something unique. Avoid goblins slimes etc. And absolutely no demons; the locals don¡¯t tolerate demons. They¡¯re not too fond of undead either.

    Blackrock (PrD): WTF! I thought they¡¯d killed you you psycho bitch.

    Winter Wolf: Surprise!

    Alligator Haven: Congrats on your survival Wolfie!

    Unamed #26 (PrD): How do I get to you Mary. I suspect I¡¯m being watched.

    Blue Lagoon: Go for one last swim from the fishin¡¯ beach. I¡¯ll have you met.

    Unamed #26 (PrD): Can do. I suspect one last swim will be perfectly understandable. I should be at the beach in about an hour.

    Blackrock (PrD): Oh man, giving up on Area 51!

    Alligator Haven: Hey idiot, volunteer for the army man, an¡¯ let ¡¯em know you¡¯re gonna be a dungeon like.

    Unamed #26 (PrD): Might work. Mention Commander Simon Meadows. He knows about proto-dungeons now. But don¡¯t tell the man about this channel. You might need it in the future.

    * * * EARTH ¨C TOD * * *

    Tod returned to the local base. He touched in with Meadows and told him about going for one last swim. Meadows nodded in understanding.

    Tod shoved his most important bag into the storage device he¡¯d bought from MagicTech. The discount Mary had given him had been welcome. He got into his car and headed for the beach. Once there he looked around for a while before getting into his swimming gear and taking to the sea.

    As promised there was someone waiting for him under the surface. He followed his fellow sea human and soon entered the blue lagoon dungeon domain. He wondered why he hadn¡¯t come swimming in this direction before.

    After a long swim they entered a opening in one of the cliffs. Then they emerged from the sea and after taking a shower and dressing he was ushered through a series of portals. Finally he was shown to a room that looked like a fairly average hotel room. There was a small crystal sitting on a letter on the bedside table.

    The note simply read: ¡°Tod, use the skill crystal to acquire the local trade language. Simply press it to your forehead and think ¡®Activate¡¯. You will get a mild headache but it won¡¯t last.

    ¡°The dining room is on the first floor at the right of the stairs.

    ¡°See you tomorrow ¨C Mary.¡±

 Chapter 115

    * * * EARTH ¨C WASHINGTON DC * * *

    Sally settled herself cross-legged on her comfy cushion and looked through the tiny peephole near the ceiling of the room. She grinned at Teddy who twirled his mage¡¯s staff and smiled back. The two rat ¡¯folk looked down at the gathering of self-important bureaucrats and federal agents as they readied themselves to listen and record.

    Sally grinned to herself. Those poor things were unaware that there were new rats in town, and that they were no longer the top of the rat totem pole. She easily suppressed her desire to snigger, after all, rat ¡¯folk were the best spies around bar none.

    ¡®And we are rat ¡¯folk not man-rats. We¡¯re on Earth after all, we can¡¯t call ourselves man anything, not if we want to blend in with these poor things...¡¯ she thought to herself.

    * * *

    Down below, the heads of the FBI¡¯s newest division gathered ¨C rather grumpily ¨C to attend a conference call with one of their most senior field officers. The man was in Florida and claimed he had important news for them.

    Director Perez looked round the table before connecting the call. She waited for a couple of seconds before saying, ¡°Go ahead agent Walker. What was so important that you felt it necessary for us to hold this meeting.¡±

    At one of the local FBI offices in Florida Jeremiah Walker and Damian Hunt sat round a much more pedestrian table with the local head of office. Jerry grimaced slightly but replied politely to his superior.

    ¡°We met Ms Silvestre on Mars. She has an alien with her and can speak their language. She implied that they would do her bidding.¡±

    Director Perez maintained her face expressionless though there were a few exclamations of surprise around the table.

    ¡°Anything else Walker?¡± asked Perez calmly.

    ¡°Yes Ms Perez. Apparently Ms Silvestre is throwing a party offworld. She has issued a couple of invitations. We have also found out that her father and stepmother were invited and are no longer on Earth.¡±

    ¡°Which probably explains where her mother and brother have disappeared to,¡± uttered a balding man sitting to Perez¡¯s left.

    Perez shot a quelling glare at that individual. ¡°What are the details of that invitation? And do you think we should accept?¡±

    ¡°She invited agent Hunt, me and up to four others. She also invited corporal Roy Anderson, significant other and four guests. We have the corporal and his lieutenant waiting outside.¡±

    ¡°When is this?¡± snapped Perez irritably.

    ¡°Today. The invited have to report to one of the portal shops between twelve and four.¡±

    Perez sighed internally, how was she to know that the standard delay for the sake of grandstanding would bite her in the ass like this? They had less than an hour before the deadline started. ¡°So who do you have available down there in Florida?¡±

    ¡°Um, director, there¡¯s a portal place in DC two blocks from that fancy new restaurant you like, several in the Hawaiian islands and one in Portland too.¡±

    Perez glared at Markowitz who set his jaw and glared back. ¡°Get to the shop with a representative of the local office at three. I¡¯ll supply the other three invitees. Call the military guys in, I need to know what they¡¯re planning.¡±

    Then there were the sounds of chairs being pulled up to a table and a new voice was heard. ¡°Good morning. My name is Lieutenant Burton James.¡±

    ¡°What are your plans lieutenant?¡±

    ¡°Admiral Forrester, his wife and aide are on their way to the DC portal shop. Commander Meadows and sergeant Perez are on their way to the shop in Maui. Corporal Anderson and his wife Gloria are just waiting for this call to end. And yes, we have cleared the extra guest with Ms Silvestre.¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Director Perez glared at the phone as she forced herself to calm down. ¡°Do you have anything else to tell me?¡±

    ¡°We have men guarding all the shops we know of on US territory. There will probably be some other nations represented.¡±

    ¡°Thank you lieutenant,¡± said Perez icily as she cut the connection. ¡°I find it annoying that the army seems to be ahead of us. Markowitz will you go?¡±

    ¡°Yes director.¡±

    ¡°Good, and find two ¨C persuasive ¨C individuals to go with you.¡±

    Markowitz smiled coldly as he nodded once.

    * * *

    Sally watched as the humans left the room, she rubbed a communications focus. ¡°Mycroft. You have to hear this...¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C COMMANDER MEADOWS * * *

    Meadows dropped the secure phone¡¯s handset back into its cradle with a look of disgust. ¡®Morons! No wonder Tod went AWOL. ¡°He can use any of the local pools¡± indeed! Fresh water is a pain according to the youngsters, as for the chlorinated water! They might just as well told Tod to go take a walk in a room full of chlorine gas!¡¯

    Meadows rose to his feet and headed to the door of his office. ¡®So now they¡¯ve lost the chance to study a dungeon establishing itself. And I¡¯ll lay odds this ¡°party¡± they want me to attend with Jo is happening because they managed to spook Mary. How they expect me to lure her back from the Moon or Mars I don¡¯t know... Especially if the idiots who seem to be getting the upper hand in Washington have tipped their hands.¡¯

    Meadows found the majority of his team in the living room watching TV. Lt Partlow muted it at Meadows signal.

    ¡°Bad news. Sergeant Harmond has vanished. I had to explain that the fact that he went for a swim and didn¡¯t return doesn¡¯t mean he committed suicide,¡± Meadows rolled his eyes. ¡°Also, that telling him that he could use chlorinated pools during his last month or so as a sea human...¡± Meadows took a certain ironic satisfaction in his teams winces, ¡°Was not a good idea.¡±

    ¡°So Tod is officially AWOL?¡± asked lt. Partlow.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s so Anna,¡± confirmed Meadows. ¡°Jo, pack a bag. Mary has issued an invitation for a party and reception somewhere off Earth. The powers that be want you and me to attend. Pack for three days.¡±

    Jo looked at Meadows wide eyed. ¡°A barbie? On the Moon? How is she planning to do that?¡±

    ¡°A reception does not sound like a barbie. Admiral Forrester and his wife will be attending. Dress uniform I think.¡±

    ¡°Yes sir,¡± agreed sergeant Jo Perez.

    * * *

    It was just after midday when Meadows and Jo, resplendent in their dress uniforms, emerged from the car being driven by Art. They had to make their way through a thick crowd that was speculating as to why the small shop in the local strip mall had a military guard.

    The guard commander snapped a salute and allowed them to enter. The bored teenager behind the desk looked up from her book and removed earbud speakers from her ears.

    ¡°Commander Meadows and Sergeant Perez. We have an invite to attend a reception.¡±

    The girl looked at them and smiled. ¡°Please step through the portal. You are expected.¡± She touched a button on the desk and a steel door slid open with a muted hiss revealing the portal.

    ? You have found: Mock Turtle Dungeon ?

    Meadows blinked in surprise. That was new! He flicked the alert away and stepped through the portal followed by Jo.

    A rabbit girl smiled at them and rose from her rocking chair. ¡°My name is Claire, and you are Commander Meadows and sergeant Perez? Thank you for letting us know when you intended to arrive unlike the FBI lot. Please follow me.¡±

    Clair led the way through an unmarked portal and into a large airy reception room with open patio doors and windows. They weren¡¯t the first arrivals.

    Meadows moved into the room and saw:

    ? You have found: Blue Lagoon Dungeon ?

    He contemplated the message for a moment before making his way to the nearest window. The sight of a busy port full of tall ships stunned him. It was a sight that would have been at home in the eighteenth century. Well with the exception of the two modern patrol boats and the airship bristling with turrets that floated overhead. He knew he wasn¡¯t on Earth anymore.

    When he regained an interest in his surroundings he overheard a trio of well-dressed individuals discussing the sight in French. He was able to understand them thanks to the skill crystal he had obtained via Mary. Just beyond them stood an ill-assorted foursome that included a black skinned elf with silver hair and a gnome woman with a pair of humans.

    * * * MOON ¨C JERRY & DAMIEN (FBI) * * *

    Jerry stepped through the by now familiar portal to find a neatly dressed rabbit woman holding a clipboard waiting for him.

    She smiled and said; ¡°Good afternoon agent Walker, I¡¯m Claire.¡± She glanced at her wristwatch and continued, ¡°I hope you and agents Hunt and Castro don¡¯t mind waiting three minutes. Assistant-director Markowitz and his two minders are just arriving.¡±

    Claire held the folder carelessly at her side and restrained a smile as Elaine ¡°Helly¡± Castro edged sideways so she could see the top sheet on the clipboard. ¡®C¡¯mon Helly, Mother wants you to see that printout of Markowitz¡¯s personnel file... That¡¯s a good girl...¡¯

    And then, almost exactly three minutes after her speech minder one stepped through, followed by Markowitz and minder two. Clair flipped up her clipboard and went into her spiel.

 Chapter 116

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C TOD * * *

    Tod glanced out of his window at the busy harbour before settling down in front of the computer terminal. He switched it on and after a slight delay as it booted up called up the local map function. He flipped through the comprehensive collection of orbital photos. The maps were good and exacting when it came to the coasts and oceans but grew increasingly incomplete and vague the further they got from the sea.

    He hummed quietly to himself as he zoomed in on a few possibilities. He didn¡¯t want to be to far from civilization or too close to an existing dungeon. As he jotted down details of his top choices he realized he had changed in the last year, they were all coastal. Idly he opened another window and chased a thought down. He was surprised to find himself on the Earth web, shrugging he called up his email account. He deleted a load of spam, and after a horrified look, several messages from the DOD.

    After looking blankly at the wall for long enough for his screen to go to sleep he dragged himself back to the present and called up the local wiki. He had to research his chosen locations to see if he could select the perfect location. Internally he half cursed Mary for refusing to tell him the best location for a new dungeon.

    When he had managed to narrow it down to two possibilities he reluctantly saw why she had refused to suggest a location, both his preferred locations were in the temperate zones and would have snowy winters. He knew Mary well enough to know the snowy winters would have vetoed both his choices in her eyes.

    Next Tod picked up his phone and called Moriarty. ¡°Hey Prof, I have it narrowed down to two locations, could you give me some advice?¡±

    ¡°Certainly Tod, but remember my primary loyalty lies with Mother.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s OK. Also, how come you have internet access and how can my mobile work?¡±

    Moriarty chuckled. ¡°Tod, you have to remember Mycroft and I are AIs. And we¡¯re not the only ones. Even Lewis was one. No way are we going to allow ourselves to be deprived of the Internet, or phones. Now what were your choices?¡±

    ¡°Just one more question, can I get internet access and reception in my dungeon after I create it?¡±

    Moriarty just laughed; before finally saying: ¡°Yes. And why don¡¯t I arrange for you to visit your two choices. I suspect I know which one you¡¯ll chose but I could easily be wrong.¡±

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary grinned crookedly when the US military delegation was ushered in to her throne room to be introduced.

    ? Hi Jo, Simon. Glad to see someone had sense. Sorry for all the ceremonial but my subjects expect it. By the way Tod¡¯s fine. ?

    Meadows and Jo both jerked slightly in surprise as Mary¡¯s voice sounded in their minds.

    When the delegation had been shown out Mary got down from her throne and made her way out trailed by Drinna. Mary and Drina joined them in the bar. They found them chatting amicably with a Russian colonel and a Spanish naval captain.

    ¡°Afternoon ladies, gents. You interested in a little boat trip an¡¯ exhibition. Can show you my proof of concept destroyer an¡¯ its missile defence capability.¡±

    ¡°Why are you sticking with ships when you have airships like the one floating out there?¡± asked admiral Forrester.

    ¡°Two reasons, can pack more on a ship, an¡¯ airships are kinda flimsy. Oh they¡¯re very useful in their place, fast, good range but you don¡¯t really want ¡¯em in a brawl. They¡¯re sittin¡¯ ducks for a laser.¡±

    ¡°Laser? They are clumsy and heavy. You¡¯re not likely to come across many,¡± suggested the admiral¡¯s aide lt. Mendez.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    Mary grinned again, ¡°Sergeant Kyle, step up and show the lieutenant your laser.¡± Mary gestured to one of the open windows. ¡°See if you can hit one of the seagulls up there.¡±

    Kyle grinned showing his sharp fangs. The tiger folk produced what looked like a lightweight shortened WW2 bazooka from his storage device, dropped a round crystal in the firing chamber. He settled it on his shoulder, peered through the sights and activated his sure shot skill.

    A bar of concentrated light came into existence for a fraction of a second and some feathers and scraps of seagull fluttered to the surface of the lagoon.

    Kyle snapped a sharp salute and put his laser away before stepping back to rejoin the bodyguard detail.

    Mary eyed the shocked military contingent and suppressed her grin. ¡°Laser, a small one. All my guard carry one. I will admit ammo is restricted. The crystals are hard to make.¡±

    ? What a lie Mother, you can just create them by the dozen in your dungeon, ? snickered Drinna.

    ? True. But I need some secrets. An¡¯ a reason for making them prohibitively expensive should I find it necessary to sell any. ?

    After seeing the assembled military personnel and their dependants off on the Dark Sword under the escort of one of her paladins, the drow Swift Shadow, Mary returned to her throne room to greet her remaining visitors.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C THE FBI * * *

    The sight that met his eyes outside the windows of the huge reception room staggered Jerry. There was no doubt they weren¡¯t on Earth any more. There just weren¡¯t that many sailing ships left on Earth and that floating airship, he¡¯d have heard of it if it existed on Earth. Then the sun had a slight bluish tinge.

    And what was worse was the look on Assistant-director Markowitz¡¯s face. It had been getting increasingly choleric with every page he flipped on that clipboard Helly had risked swiping after Clair had put it down before leading them through the last portal.

    He returned to the group seeking familiarity. The Moon and Mars had been bad enough but this was truly frightening. A new world... an inhabited world... well the aliens had proved aliens existed but still, he had not expected to find himself on a new world. What about alien diseases... Then his eyes opened in shock.

    ¡°Sir... Sir the group that¡¯s just come in via the portal, isn¡¯t that X. The Russian agent we haven¡¯t identified yet?¡±

    ¡°What... Ridiculous, he was reported in Tehran... Fuck, yes it is,¡± said Durrell, the man Claire had called minder two.

    Markowitz ripped the sheets of paper from the clipboard and folded them roughly before shoving them into a pocket. He passed the empty clipboard back to Helly and said bruskly: ¡°Well done, now get rid of that when you can. Did you see much of that?¡±

    ¡°No sir, just the top sheet,¡± replied Helly as she stuffed the clipboard back in her bag.

    ¡°Heads will roll,¡± muttered Markowitz even as he scowled at the Russians. ¡°How the hell did they get hold of that transcript? That meeting was top secret, and it was held today! As for the personnel files...¡±

    Jerry¡¯s ears perked up and his brain started speculating. He really didn¡¯t like the conclusions he was coming to. Whoever was running the girl had them bugged six ways to Christmas. He hoped it was the Navy, though he doubted it. He didn¡¯t think the armed forces would be bugging the FBI, but it was possible. Jerry felt his latent paranoia stir.

    * * *

    Jerry trailed his superior as they were led to what could only be a throne room. The murals were well done and depicted an underwater scene with a sunken city and assorted sealife. Ms Silvestre was presiding on an elaborate throne. A very young elf girl with abundant green hair was acting as master of ceremonies.

    Jerry was both impressed and dismayed by the fact that Ms Silvestre greeted every delegation in their native tongue. It irritated him that their records were wrong in so many details. The file he had perused only gave her English and basic Spanish.

    The uniformed guards, mostly beastfolk, were armed with HK G3¡¯s.

    After the introductions they were ushered into a large dining room and bar area. They found their military colleagues or rivals hob knobbing with their opposite numbers. The assorted Earth military seemed to be getting on very well, something the FBI contingent found disturbing.

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary put the final touches to her new palace. It was stupidly extravagant and ostentatious. She grinned up at the orbiting mirrors, Things were working out nicely, already she couldn¡¯t see any ice from her new windows. The ice was retreating. The ocean was coming to life again. The population was small on Fragatta but the faith and prayers were a heady brew.

    She looked to the South. ¡®I can feel you Fatagn the slothful. Keep sticking around and I¡¯ll have a real show for my visitors. That and send a message to your bosses that I hope they manage to understand. I don¡¯t want them, or you, sticking their collective noses in my business. I¡¯m recovering this place and setting up another world for Bluey to take over. And that¡¯s more than those hidebound old fogeys have managed in god knows how long.¡¯

    She shook her head and verified that her latest spaceship was ready and that the crab folk crew were correctly briefed.

 Chapter 117

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C FBI * * *

    Jerry checked the room for bugs; the rabbit girl Claire had been very accommodating in finding them a remote conference room. The commander who had consistently bungled his assignment with the girl was looking at him with a faintly contemptuous look. The admiral was maintaining a fine poker face.

    Markowitz barked irritably, ¡°What do you find so strange commander? Walker is using cutting edge tech, and looking for bugs is standard. We need to know when we¡¯re secure.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re in a dungeon sir. Dungeons don¡¯t need bugs,¡± explained Meadows.

    ¡°What do you know about dungeons commander? We¡¯ve been studying them at the paranormal division. They are severely limited. Their actual beings are restricted to some kind of magical gem in the furthest part of their dwelling,¡± pontificated Markowitz.

    ¡°They are considerably more than that, they have a ¨C a domain. And they know exactly what happens in that domain,¡± Meadows tried again.

    ¡°Possibly, but we have a white noise generator. And with such a big dungeon, it¡¯ll never be able to pick up on what we are saying. Let¡¯s get started.¡±

    Meadows exchanged a look of resignation with Jo and Forrester. ¡°Very well sir, what is so important that we have to meet now, before we return to a more secure location?¡±

    ¡°I felt it to be in our interest to warn you that somehow we have been compromised. Whoever is involved with Ms Silvestre knows of our objectives. So we will have to improvise.¡± Markowitz paused looking worried, ¡°What have you found so far?¡±

    Admiral Forrester looked grim, ¡°Ms Silvestre has somehow become the ruler of a powerful trading empire. She¡¯s known as the pirate¡¯s bane. She has at least two patrol boats and a destroyer. They are armed with missiles and powerful lasers. The destroyer, through use of storage magics can fly off four VTOL jet bombers. They are surprisingly manoeuvrable and effective. They allowed captain Esteban and me to fly one. And this was outside the dungeon. Further they have lightweight man portable lasers, though they claim they are short of ammo.¡±

    Markowitz looked unimpressed. ¡°Very little of that will be important. This planet, if it isn¡¯t some elaborate hoax perpetuated by the dungeon, is primitive. No danger to us especially considering the size of the portals.¡±

    Jerry forced himself to remain silent. He was starting to wonder just how secure they were. The commander had made a good point about the dungeon. Then he remembered what the corporal had reported about the portal that was used by trucks in Florida.

    Meadows stirred, ¡°Mary ¨C Ms Silvestre is not hostile to our interests. I¡¯m sure we could come to some agreement. But, we do have to be careful. She does have ¨C sympathisers ¨C in some unexpected places. And Blue Lagoon and Wonderland, err, Mock Turtle, are the two most powerful dungeons currently on Earth.¡±

    Jerry opened his mouth, closed it and looked at Markowitz. Gathering his resolution he said, ¡°We are aware of three dungeons in the US, Dinosaur Caves on Maui. Alligator Haven under the city of New York, and Frank Goodyear¡¯s Bet Your Life dungeon in Oregon. None of them seem dangerous, there was Winter Wolf in Bismark but the army killed it. The Australians have Drop Bear, which also doesn¡¯t seem threatening. Why are you worried about dungeons?¡±

    The military contingent shared an exasperated look, obviously asking for patience in dealing with civilians. ¡°Blue Lagoon has access to magically enhanced weaponry and systems we can¡¯t as yet match. We¡¯re lots bigger but we can¡¯t access it freely. We know it¡¯s on Earth, almost certainly somewhere in the seas off Hawaii. All I can say is ¨C be cautious when treating with Ms Silvestre,¡± explained admiral Forrester.

    Markowitz snorted in disdain, ¡°You military folk are always so cautious. Silvestre is only a teenager, we just have to be wary of her allies. Admittedly our original plans have been stymied by the security breach but we¡¯ll just have to adapt.¡±Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    The military contingent shared another look and sat back as the intelligence agents wound the meeting up.

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C MARY * * *

    It was time. Mary dismissed her human avatar and called forth her dolphin form. Slowly at first she started swimming towards the interloper. She gained speed steadily. Behind her on the island she felt the Earth delegations arrive on Fragatta. Her other me arrived with them and remained near the portal, ready to return to Parthia.

    She was now dashing through the waves; it was exhilarating. Time for the broadcast and the challenge.

    ? HOI! Get off my world Fatagn! Stop polluting my oceans you useless excuse for a God. Go back home while you still can. ?

    Well beyond Blue Lagoon¡¯s limits the waters of the ocean swirled and roiled as a massive something rose to the surface. Fatagn the Slothful took after his progenitor, standing waist deep in the ocean, the visible part had a vaguely humanoid form that seemed to shift minutely from time to time. The long narrow wings on his back snapped open in an apparent attempt to look even bigger that he was. The octopus-like head with a face that seemed to consist of a mass of feelers or tentacles seemed agitated.

    ? I AM FATAGN. ONE OF THE GREATER GODS. BOW DOWN TO ME LITTLE GODDESS AND FEED ME YOUR FOLLOWERS AS SACRIFICES. ?

    ? And I am the MOTHER OF MONSTERS! And this is MY world. ?

    By now Mary was moving faster than any dolphin should be capable of. She left the ocean in a flattish ark and rammed into Fatagn¡¯s chest knocking him over. Even as they disappeared under the surface of the ocean Mary embraced her octopus avatar and tore mercilessly into her opponent.

    ? WHAAT! NO! ¨C I am a greater god! ¨C You planetaries can¡¯t attack us! ¨C NOOO! ¨C PLEASE! ?

    An extremely surprised Mary dragged the carcass of Fatagn the Slothfull into her sector of the gods plain where she found the other gods of Fragatta. They looked as surprised as she felt. Mary looked at them, ¡°But he was so weak! He died so easily.¡± Mary lifted one shoulder as she absorbed part of the deceased god¡¯s divine aura. ¡°Oh well, take what you want. There really isn¡¯t much.¡±

    ? you have slain one of the greater gods. There is a vacancy in the Gardens of Paradise. Do you wish to join the greater gods ¨C Yes/no? ?

    ? NO! Beep no! Why was he so weak Bluey? ?

    ? no worshipers ?

    Mary exchanged glances with the members of her court. They all felt stronger now, even her. ¡°I have to go impress my visitors. I will return after they leave. We have decisions to make.¡±

    Mary focused on her visitors. She noted her followers were all getting back on their feet. They all seemed to share an inward almost ecstatic look. The visitors seemed to be coming out of a trance. ¡®Oh dear, good chance the cat¡¯s out of the bag as far as Jo is concerned. Sea humans are mine! And now she should realize it. At least the bonus at bein¡¯ in on a god killin¡¯ should soften the blow.¡¯ Mary grinned to herself, ¡®All those nice seals they were countin¡¯ on... Hee!¡¯

    Still grinning she manifested her avatar at the rear of the group near the portal to Parthia.

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C COMMANDER MEADOWS * * *

    Meadows shook himself out of the trance he had fallen into after the two Gods voices had entered his head. And yes, he knew that they were gods. The System was emphatic on that point. He didn¡¯t know what to make of the ¨C killing ¨C he had somehow witnessed. That they had all witnessed. The locals were getting to their feet looking ecstatic. Jo was also rising to her feet, however she looked stunned.

    As for that somewhat bombastic fellow they had met on Parthia, master bard Dardadus of the Golden Voice was scribbling furiously in his leather bound notebook. The biro looked incongruous in his scarred hands.

    He felt a tad heavier than he had on Parthia. He suspected the local gravity was a shade higher than Earth¡¯s. The sky was sparkling with multiple sources of light that were visible even though it was day.

    That Cthulhu lookalike had been killed with horrible ease by that dolphin octopus shapeshifting Mother of Monsters goddess the locals worshiped. He wasn¡¯t sorry either, not after that sacrifices crack. He stole a look at Jo; she seemed to be recovering nicely. He¡¯d have to ask her about it, but only after they were out of this multi-world dungeon.

    * * *

    Meadows was sharing the big display window with some civilians, they had been introduced as representatives of Earth¡¯s Adventurer¡¯s Guild. From their accents he suspected they were from New Jersey. Not that he was paying much attention to them as the view through the lookout port was both beautiful and frightening in its implications.

    The world below was rather bland and uninteresting compared with Earth, but the collection of massive satellites beaming down sunlight showed the aliens complete mastery of the planet¡¯s orbitals. Then there was the huge moon, or more accurately, twin planet they were approaching. According to the droning bored sounding commentary by one of the aliens, here they were bombarding it with meteorites consisting of frozen gasses.

    Meadows found it amusing that Markowitz had ceased trying to dominate everything. Even so he did pity the man his space sickness. Being weightless was very convincing.

 Chapter 118

    * * * THE GARDENS OF PARADISE * * *

    Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz jerked awake from one of the nightmares involving hordes of well fed bizarrely dressed humans staring at him in a very disrespectful way. These had become all too common during the past half-century. It was then that he realized that it was the doleful sound of the Gong of Remembrance that had awakened him. He looked down at himself and growled in frustration. It had happened again. He composed himself and embraced his self-image.

    The Great God of the lower mid tier; Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz the King of Rodents, overseer of the Gods of the lower tier and their Gardens stepped out of the ridiculously oversized yellow shoes and the equally oversized barbarous red shorts. He shook the stupid misshapen white gloves from his elegant long fingered hands and incinerated the lot in one flaming, fulminating glare.

    He stepped up to his mirror and checked on his appearance. He calmed the rat-tails growing on his upper lip and coaxed them into twining themselves together and settling into an elegant curve on his face. Satisfied that all was well he summoned his servants and slaves.

    Two hours later, suitably anointed and dressed Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz emerged from his luxurious chambers and went to discover what had caused all the ruckus earlier that morning.

    Once he settled in his public office he started receiving his secretaries. He dealt with the ever-present problem of precedence and the delicate rearrangement of influence and status amongst his staff. It was a problem that was inevitable ever since he had felt it necessary to increase the number of his secretaries and palace staff last year. Hopefully things would settle down soon.

    Then came lunch, with some of his more ambitious and ambiguous charges.

    It was only when he was relaxing after a satisfying meal that one of his undersecretaries ¨C after all the usual polite nothings needed to maintain civility said, ¡°My lord Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz, Fatagn the Slothful left the Gardens and attempted to steal the works and followers on one of the worlds of a minor goddess. She killed him.¡±

    Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz regarded his undersecretary for a moment. ¡°I see, arrange a time for me to interview this goddess. I will need to inform her of the Emperor¡¯s rules, and of her place in the Gardens.¡±

    The undersecretary bowed low. ¡°She rejected the honour sir. She did not ascend to the Gardens. I can send her a summons if you wish to see her.¡±

    Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz¡¯s eyes narrowed in displeasure, he ignored his feelings of annoyance at the slight to focus on his immediate problem. ¡°I am curious. How did such a lowly one know about the other worlds? Let alone know how to get to them? Find out please. And send the summons to whomever.¡±

    The undersecretary dropped to his knees and knocked his head three times on the floor. ¡°Thy will be done.¡±

    Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz watched his undersecretary crawl backwards out of his presence and worried. ¡®This is excessive, what is he hiding from me. I must have him investigated.¡¯

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C TOD * * *

    Tod strolled along the docks of Maalaea Two. The town was much larger than it¡¯s namesake on Earth. Especially as about half of it was built under the waters of the lagoon. It had been fascinating to explore a town that was built for and by sea humans and sea elves. Then there were tritons and meremen and those octopi that somehow shared Mary¡¯s twisted sense of humour and attitudes.

    There she was, the Queen of the Seas. A rakish looking schooner rigged brig. She was tied up to a jetty in a section of the docks reserved for the temples. He still felt faintly unhappy that he had to leave the planet of his birth. He squared his shoulders and used the gangplank to board the Queen of the Seas.

    Tod was intercepted by a burly wolf ¡¯folk sailor who took him to see the ship¡¯s purser. Harold turned out to be a weather beaten balding man. He seemed amused, ¡°Welcome aboard the Queenie. I trust you¡¯ll have a pleasant journey with us. The Cap is damn glad you aren¡¯t a fan of the arctic lands.¡±If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Tod blinked at what seemed to him to be a non sequitur. ¡°Ah... Will the trip take long?¡±

    Harold grinned widely. He waved a contemptuous hand at some of the tubby round-hulled merchantmen that were sharing the port with them. ¡°One of those tubs would take at least two weeks to Black Cove and another two to Vaar¡¯s Beach. We¡¯ll do it in one. Unless, the Cap gets impatient.¡±

    Harold closed his ledger and rose from behind the table he had been using as a desk. ¡°I¡¯ll introduce you to Captain Gail Stormchaser, then I¡¯ll show you to your cabin.¡±

    Gail Stormchaser turned out to be a tall woman with short cropped blue-green hair. She squinted at the sun when she saw him coming. ¡°ZACK! Haul in the gangplank and cast off,¡± she bellowed, then she turned her attention to Tod. ¡°Welcome aboard my Queenie. I¡¯ll have you at Black Cove in four days.¡±

    Then she was off bellowing orders. Harold grinned again. ¡°Seems Cap is in a hurry. Hope you¡¯re not the nervous sort. We haven¡¯t capsized yet.¡±

    * * *

    That evening, after dinner Tod leant back in his bunk. The captain and more than a quarter of the crew were sea humans. There even was a sea elf on board, he understood why Mary had selected this ship; even if the captain seemed to be an adrenalin junkie.

    He glanced at the sat-phone Moriarty had handed him and, almost against his will, keyed in a number. He wasn¡¯t surprised when it rang.

    ¡°Commander Meadows here.¡±

    ¡°Evening Commander. Tod here. How are you sir? I thought I spotted you yesterday.¡±

    ¡°I really doubt that Tod. Yesterday I was on another world thanks to Mary. Where are you?¡±

    ¡°On Parthia. Sailing north on a speed maniac¡¯s ship, a brig.¡±

    ¡°... How did you manage a connection? I¡¯m not on Earth, nor on Parthia.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know sir. I¡¯m using a sat-phone. So I assume there are comsats in orbit. And ... um ... I was told that certain individuals don¡¯t want to be deprived of access to Earth. So... Ah ... where are you sir.¡±

    Tod heard a short bark of laughter before Meadows voice came over his phone again. ¡°We just left orbit around Fragatta and are headed for what we have been told is a twin planet. Looks like a big moon.¡±

    ¡°Fragatta? The frozen planet?¡±

    ¡°... Well, the melting planet. The aliens seem to be melting the ice.¡±

    ¡°Aliens?¡± Tod was unable to suppress a snort of amusement, ¡°I see. Well I¡¯m glad to know you¡¯re well. I¡¯ll call again. You can reach me on this number.¡±

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C IN ORBIT * * *

    Meadows glared suspiciously at his smartphone. He knew Tod only too well, Tod obviously knew, or thought he knew something about the aliens. Meadows pocketed his phone and looked at their alien guide. He was still droning on in French. Something was very fishy here.

    * * *

    Something caught Jake¡¯s eye. It took him a second to realize that the naval officer was talking on a normal looking smartphone. He fished his own out of his pocket and sure enough he had a viable signal. He glanced out of the observation window at the stupidly large orbiting mirror. He knew that there was nothing like it around Earth. So here he was in orbit around another planet, and he could still use his phone.

    It certainly looked like the naval guy had received unwelcome news by the way he was frowning. Jake dismissed his feelings and returned his attention to Jinny and their two visitors. ¡®Wish Wiz was with us,¡¯ he thought to himself. ¡®And to think I nearly ignored the invite, if it wasn¡¯t for Fidget and Swiftfall I¡¯d never have visited two worlds, or met any aliens. Pity I can¡¯t speak French.¡¯

    ¡°I have to thank you both for insisting on us accepting Ms Silvestre¡¯s invitation. Just that other world was beyond expectations. This, being in a spaceship is¡ª¡± Jake trailed off.

    Fidget looked up at him solemnly. ¡°Parthia was interesting. Fragatta, well I spoke with some of the locals. One year ago it was all ice. A tragedy caused by one or more of the new gods. A sea goddess who is also a dungeon is... It is confusing.¡±

    Swiftfall smiled happily. ¡°My goddess is proving better than I could have hoped.¡± He rubbed the brooch he was wearing with a thumb. ¡°Even the Tinkerer must be jealous of what she has access to.¡±

    ¡°The Tinkerer? Who¡¯s that?¡± asked Jinny.

    ¡°He is the principal god on Tarifax. He is the father of the steam engine,¡± explained Fidget.

    ¡°Really, but steam is kinda primitive. Not much use for it anymore,¡± said Jake.

    Fidget closed her eyes in pain. She sighed and looked around and out of the window. ¡°Well yes. I am learning. It¡¯s so frustrating that you all use such fascinating things, and you do not know how they work.¡±

    ¡°I truly don¡¯t know what the Guild back home is going to make of all this. Or the fact that a goddess and dungeon is sponsoring your world¡¯s Guild. And now I have overheard several military people speculating about orbitals and orbital bombardments. I suspect the mother of Monsters is going to gain a shrine at the headquarters of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild,¡± speculated Swiftfall.

    ¡°I would recommend that,¡± said Fidget.

 Chapter 119

    * * * KANALOA ¨C JEREMIAH WALKER ¨C FBI * * *

    Jerry was happy to leave the confines of the spaceship. The large underwater dome on Kanaloa was filled with aliens and contained nearly as many wolf and cat beastfolk. There was also a scattering of humans and elves, he suspected most if not all of these to be the sea variant.

    Markowitz was becoming impossible. It was becoming increasingly likely that the aliens were the principal force behind the girl. Though she showed good sense in always having a large armed retinue of beastfolk, about half of which were the tiger variant.

    Then there were the handful of dolphins on the lower, mostly aquatic level of this dome city. The implications of being able to converse with the beasts were ¨C unsettling.

    The gravity on Kanaloa was about three quarters that of Earth. Several of the other guests including a professor from the Sorbonne were adamant that Fragatta and Kanaloa were indeed twin planets.

    Thankfully nothing they had seen appeared to be more technologically advanced than Earth possessed. The problem was the mastery and integration of magic being displayed.

    And now Markowitz had called another meeting, and the military contingent had flat out refused to attend citing security. That hadn¡¯t gone down well with the increasingly irate Markowitz.

    Jerry watched mutely as Markowitz¡¯s aides secured the room. He had come to share the military¡¯s opinion of the chances of preventing the dungeon from overhearing everything that was about to be said. And then there was that military guy with the truth reader skill.

    However he had his duty so he dutifully swept the room for bugs.

    The only way he could see out of this was to keep quiet. He decided that he would have to recommend recruiting for individuals with the truth reading skills. Jerry refocused his attention on the meeting when he realized Markowitz had started talking.

    ¡°... propose we push for settlement and trade rights on Parthia. Possibly on Fragatta, but quite honestly from what I saw from orbit there¡¯s not much there for us. And as for Kanaloa, there seems to be no land and the atmosphere is toxic.¡±

    Markowitz looked around the table as if threatening anyone to disagree with him. Jerry had no problems with keeping quiet. He had lots of experience of meetings like this and superiors like Markowitz.

    ¡°And anyway, the aliens seem very invested in this system. It seems to me that we should leave things like that. The single ship and scattering of aliens in our solar system are more than we need as it is.

    ¡°At least until we can match their tech.¡± Concluded Markowitz.

    ¡°And how do you propose we access Parthia sir?¡± asked Damien.

    Jerry cast his partner a neutral look, he had hoped Damien would have followed his lead and remained silent. But apparently his hope was not going to be satisfied.

    ¡°We need to demand one of the larger portals. That way we can use it at the same time as our scientists study it for reverse engineering. We just have to gain control of the girl somehow. Maybe with an appeal to her patriotism.¡±

    ¡°But she¡¯s the head of state of a sizable country on Parthia,¡± objected Damien.

    ¡°Nuts! We have no proof of that. She might not even be in charge of that city on Parthia. After all, the bureau believes she is being controlled. Two can play at that game,¡± asserted Markowitz with a satisfied grin.

    ¡°Maalaea Two? Even just her assorted bodyguards could control Maalaea Two given their weaponry. I agree the odds are good that she is being controlled, but she seems to be preparing herself to become independent. She is an extremely competent enchanter and bio-mage after all. And that suggests high intelligence,¡± said Jerry in exasperation.

    ¡°Not a problem, she¡¯s a girl and so we can play on her emotions. It¡¯s worked before,¡± concluded Markowitz.

    ¡°She has been diagnosed as a borderline psychopath. Emotions are not... And she controls a small army. And some of the stories of how she deals with pirates... Please be cautious sir.¡±

    ¡°Nonsense Walker. You worry too much. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s all a smokescreen. Durrell, any chance of grabbing the girl and taking her with us to Earth?¡±

    ¡°Sorry sir, not a chance given the size and attentiveness of her bodyguard detail.¡±

    ¡°Well, if the opportunity arises, don¡¯t hesitate.¡±

    Jerry winced internally. ¡®Oh god, I hope the military is just being paranoid about this dungeon. If Ms Silvestre and her backers learn of this... There goes any chance of tempting her back home and persuading her to work for us.¡¯

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary stepped back through the portal her guests had used as her other me started her dash at Fatagn. Once on Parthia she dismissed her avatar and reached for her core back on Earth. She settled herself and remained with herself so that their strength would be maximised.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    After the brief ¨C very brief ¨C fight she separated from her other me and contemplated her situation on Earth. Clearly she needed to up her game. Once again she reached and shared a thought with her other me as she boarded one of her spaceships on Fragatta. The two Marys considered what to do with Markowitz and his minders. Was it better to use the bigoted rigid idiot or would it be better to get rid of him. They decided to wait and see, the show and tell wasn¡¯t over yet.

    Mary dismissed the thought even as she prepared to withdraw her domain from all but a thread under her home. That done she slowly moved her domain out into the Pacific and withdrew it even further from the surface of the ocean. The most difficult part was moving her liftwood plantations and the minor changes required to make them thrive in deeper waters.

    Next she increased her underwater defences. ¡®Amusin¡¯ how my Earth dungeons rely far more on monsters than my others. People are more dangerous than most monsters after all. Lookin¡¯ forward to the reaction when people discover one of my octopi cities under the waves. Bet the one under the gulf will be first.¡¯

    Shifting her attention to Florida she transferred the part of her domain holding her boatyard to Lewis Carroll and took her domain out into the gulf. She was happy to keep part of it on the surface. That should confuse things, when it was discovered. Or rather when the people who discovered it believed their senses and bothered to report the fact.

    Then she reached out to the dolphins and offered to teach them, or rather those with the aptitude, magic. Thanks to her dolphin friends on Parthia she had the appropriate skill crystals and tutors available.

    * * *

    After her daily merge the following day she/they had decided. ¡®The man has to go,¡¯ She thought. ¡®An¡¯ it is time to teach the paranormal division a lesson. Helli is so fond of sticking her nose where it isn¡¯t invited, so I¡¯ll let her find a couple of papers to heighten their paranoia an¡¯ throw a scare into her. Other me will handle that. An¡¯ I know just the specialist I¡¯ll need to remove Markowitz.¡¯

    * * * EARTH ¨C SALLY * * *

    Sally and Teddy were sitting at their ease in the den they had established deep under the FBI building that housed the paranormal division. They regarded Keoni. They knew that Keoni was one of Mary¡¯s original rat ¡¯folk. He had been created before they had the ability to shape shift. And he had assisted in the assassination of the judge and chief magistrate of Drakoton. Mother had informed them that Keoni had found that kind of activity to his taste and had become one of her specialists.

    After telling Keoni everything they had learned about Markowitz, Sally thought for a bit then stated, ¡°Mother told us what Markowitz plans. While I¡¯m not sure this is the best course to follow, me and mine will help you as much as possible.¡± Teddy nodded his agreement.

    Keoni spread his hands, ¡°True, these things can backfire. But usually... all they accomplish is getting another ass into the firing line. Can you get me some samples of the man¡¯s hair and or skin flakes.¡±

    ¡°Mmm, should be possible. I can shape concrete, so an opening to his office is easy enough. The cleaners never do a good job. They¡¯re always overworked and rushed,¡± mused Teddy.

    Keoni came to point, ¡°Can you teach me that shape concrete spell? I suspect I will have more work here on Earth soon.¡±

    ¡°Certainly. If you know any of the rock shaping spells it will be easy.¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± grinned Keoni. Then he turned to Sally, ¡°You¡¯re sure no one else gets to drink from that bottle of Bourbon?¡±

    ¡°Yes. The man keeps a couple hidden in the bottom drawer of his desk. I think he believes no one knows about them.¡± Sally chuckled, ¡°Actually it¡¯s an open secret in his office. The idiot doesn¡¯t seem to realize even humans have a sense of smell.¡±

    ¡°Good, I¡¯ve a poison that can be altered with the victim to be¡¯s genetic material. It will break down quickly and becomes more lethal to the victim even as it looses its potency to anyone else who drinks it. It will still make them sick mind.¡±

    Sally looked uncomfortable for a moment. ¡°The drawer is locked but has no magical protections. There is no camera watching the office.¡±

    Keoni smiled sardonically. ¡°This will be so easy, it¡¯s silly.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C ARENA OF BLOOD * * *

    Olivier Broussette got out of his car. Standing just outside the dungeon he produced his phone and made a call.

    ¡°Morning Ollie. You coming buddy?¡±

    ¡°Morning Frog. Actually I¡¯m just outside your dungeon. I wanted to warn you before stepping in. Your dryad kind of scares me.¡±

    ¡°Hey man, don¡¯t worry ¡¯bout her. She knows you¡¯re a friend. Come on in.¡±

    * * *

    Olli soon found himself in Frog¡¯s underground home. The room he found himself in was surprisingly dry and cool. It had several comfortable armchairs, a computer and a wide screen TV.

    Frog waved him to a chair and offered him a glass of cold tea and a plate of cookies.

    Olli settled down and sipped his tea. ¡°Hey man, thanks for that sludge. It worked a treat. The blight I tried it on is almost completely gone. Can you get me some more.¡±

    ¡°Good to know. Mother is the one you should thank, she¡¯s the one who cooked it up.¡±

    ¡°Your mother? Please give her my thanks. That stuff is brilliant.¡±

    Frog looked embarrassed, ¡°Um, no, not my mother ¨C Mother with a capital M. She¡¯s the ... Queen dungeon on Earth. Don¡¯t get me wrong; she¡¯s very nice, so long as you don¡¯t cross her. She reminds me of the Godfather in the film.¡±

    Olli sat back with narrowed eyes as he took this in. ¡°So you sain¡¯ I owe her a favour?¡±

    ¡°No. I owe her one and you owe me one. If you want more of that stuff I¡¯ll give you a number to contact one of her agents here on Earth. Sorry Olli but I don¡¯t want to owe her too many favours. I think we¡¯re friends but...¡± Frog grimaced and spread his hands. ¡°I owe her too much already as Angel knows.¡±

    ¡°Angel? Ah, your companion... right? So why did you want to see me.¡±

    ¡°You remember how I told you I ended up a dungeon?¡±

    ¡°Yes, something about some crazy goddess who grabbed part of your soul and set you up as a dungeon on another world.¡±

    ¡°Correct. That other version of me has a group of ¨C condemned prisoners and slaves who were forced to delve. The locals are waiting to kill them if they emerge despite their promises. Mother and Mock Turtle, another powerful dungeon, have arranged it so I can set up a portal between my dungeons. I was hoping you would help me out with them. Well with most of them, one of them worships the Mother of Monsters and she will take her in.¡±

    Olli narrowed his in thought. ¡°What about language man. They won¡¯t speak English will they?¡±

    ¡°Mother can arrange that. And she can get them papers and green cards.¡±

    Olli looked incredulous. ¡°I thought you said Mother was a dungeon? How can a dungeon issue green cards?¡±

    ¡°Any one of us can duplicate paper documents, that¡¯s easy. Mother has minions that can infiltrate the feds computers and more.¡± Frog shrugged.

    Olli drew in a big breath, and then seemed to collapse. ¡°Hell man, ¡¯course I¡¯ll help. If you think these people deserve help I¡¯ll believe you.¡±

 Chapter 120

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary watched her guests emerge from her spaceships after their trip to Kanaloa. Markowitz still seemed to be fuming and his minders and even Helly seemed on edge. Jerry and Damien seemed resigned to the situation. They seemed to be trying to avoid and ignore their superior.

    ¡®Now where are those four going? The only things down that corridor are either stores of salted fish or empty storerooms.¡¯ She grinned to herself, ¡®and of course that portal behind the locked door marked ¡°authorised personnel only¡± that¡¯s just ¡¯round the corner. Let me create it now. Lock, check. Sign, check. Ooo, easier than shootin¡¯ fish in a barrel. Now why would anyone want to shoot fish in a barrel? Portal... check.¡¯

    ? Lewis, do you mind helping me out here. Check out the new one-way portal. Do you mind setting up another to some backwater location on Parthia. And see that the FBI idiots stumble over a pack of emergency supplies that contains a sat phone. And, much as I dislike the idea ¨C a skill crystal with tradetalk. ?

    ? What are you up to now Mary? But fine, no problem. ?

    ? Take a look. Mycroft, be a dear and squirt a compressed data-dump of Markowitz and his stooges to Lewis. ?

    Mary watched with glee as Durrell picked the lock on the door. They entered the empty room and examined the portal. Helly poked her head through and looked around. She withdrew her head as Mary juggled things to allow it.

    ¡°It¡¯s an empty room with a table and five chairs. There is one door. There are two ring binders on the table and two backpacks leaning against the wall.¡±

    Markowitz impetuously stepped through the portal followed by his minders. Helly remained behind, standing nervously by the door. Mary waited for several minutes savouring Markowitz¡¯s rage when he realized the portal wouldn¡¯t let him return.

    She reached out for her other self on Earth and they shared a laugh. Then while her other me was postponing their plot on Earth, Mary urged a squad of guards to march down the corridor telling them to chat amongst themselves.

    ¡®And that¡¯s a full house,¡¯ chortled Mary to herself as she watched Helly dart through the portal, intent on warning Markowitz.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Markowitz glared at the table. He was cursing himself for being impulsive. He knew he should have sent Durrell or Smyth to check the room out. But now they were all here. The ring binders made it clear that they had crashed a training and familiarization exercise.

    It would seem that they were on Parthia. On a small continent about the same size as Australia called Fraldator by the natives. The nearest settlements were both about twenty kilometres distant. The backpacks contained emergency supplies for five people including two sat phones and five so called skill crystals with the local trade language.

    ¡°What do you think Durrell? Should we use those crystals? Not sure I trust them.¡±

    ¡°Well boss, I personally don¡¯t like the disclosure. What idiots would sign on for this kind of training? And how can we phone our sponsor and trainer for pickup? How can we trust those crystal things?¡±

    Markowitz swung round when Helly popped into existence. He listened with resignation when she warned him that a patrol was on the way and it was time to leave.

    ¡°We¡¯d love to Castro, but that was a one way portal for the next training group.¡±

    ¡°Here Helly, take this and press it to your forehead and think ¡®evoke¡¯ at it,¡± said Durrell as he passed Helly one of the skill crystals.

    Markowitz snapped his mouth shut and watched with narrowed eyes as Helly did so. She frowned and rubbed her head. ¡°I could do with an aspirin, you could have warned me about the headache Durrell. My head feels stuffed.¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    Markowitz turned his head. ¡°As I have no interest in meeting the monsters that are due shortly let¡¯s go. Durrell, Smyth grab one of the backpacks and lets go.¡± Markowitz picked up one of the ring binders and headed for the door behind Durrell. ¡°Castro, come along and fetch the other binder. You¡¯ll need to read it.¡±

    Ten minutes later they were standing in front of a small rectangular stone building adorned with some statues of creatures found in the writings of Lewis Carroll. They were on a small muddy island in the middle of a swamp. To their front lay a thin corduroy road or path. The drone of insects was the only sound. Smyth fished out one of the sat phones and switched it on.

    ¡°We have a signal,¡± he said sounding surprised.

    * * * EARTH ¨C IN THE NEWS * * *

    ¡°Yesterday at several locations in the US, the military established cordons around shops belonging to Portals plc. We have been able to confirm that several countries have reacted in a similar fashion.

    ¡°The travel industry has reacted with disbelief to the news that some people were able to travel to other countries for fifteen dollars before the military closed the shops down.

    ¡°We were able to speak with the company¡¯s spokesperson, Ms Lane Loisdottir. We apologise for the sound quality and the delays as Ms Loisdottir is in the company headquarters on the Moon.

    ¡°Ms Loisdottir what can you tell us about these outrageous rumours?¡±

    ¡°First let me ask the various governments to free our staff. The individuals in question are all students looking to earn some cash, and all they know is how to operate a computerised teller and what buttons to press to open the doors to the portals. They are not to blame for the fact that the portals have ceased to work.¡±

    ¡°I put it to you that they never did work.¡±

    ¡°If so, why have so many governments reacted as they have? And how is it that I am on the Moon?¡±

    ¡°But how can you get by charging fifteen dollars?¡±

    ¡°That was a loss leader, an introductory offer on our first day. We will be charging a minimum of one hundred and twenty dollars in future. As we are doing so in the three countries where we are operating freely.¡±

    ¡°Minimum? Are you planning to offer different fares depending on where you operate?¡±

    ¡°Naturally. We have to cover all local taxes imposed on our service.¡±

    * * *

    The cameras showed a noisy demonstration outside the headquarters of NASA. The barely restrained mob was waving banners and placards denouncing the ecological defilement of Mars.

    ¡°Well David, what do you think of the protestors arguments.¡±

    ¡°Well George, I believe they are demonstrating in the wrong place. NASA has nothing to do with what is happening on Mars.¡±

    ¡°Certainly David, but NASA represents humanity in the solar system.¡±

    ¡°But George, The ones on Mars are the Lobsters.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure David? According to NASA their spaceship is heading towards Jupiter at the moment.¡±

    ¡°Come on George, if that¡¯s the case, who is setting up those mirrors over their settlement on Mars? The Martians?¡±

    ¡°Well David, maybe there really are Martians, and they¡¯re working with the aliens.¡±

    * * *

    ¡°This is Jaime Teixeira here in Port-Au-Prince. I can confirm that one of the local dolphins has taken to using magic to create some mind-bending illusions.

    ¡°Then too she can talk. As to be expected Darting-merrily-through-the-waves doesn¡¯t speak French, English or Spanish. But my colleagues and I were able to gain the ability to speak her language thanks to the donation of something MagiTech inc. calls a ¡®skill crystal¡¯.

    ¡°We spoke with a company spokesperson. Ms Loisdottir assured us that these ¡®skill crystals¡¯ would be joining their standard offerings. A simple single use basic language skill crystal would retail for six thousand dollars. An advanced skill crystal retails for twenty thousand and contains a larger vocabulary including specialised terms along with cultural references.

    ¡°And the language suitable to speak with dolphins is, ¡®common trade (Parthia)¡¯.

    ¡°Rather bizarrely, my friend Ruth finds it a language that helps her understand her spells. She claims it is very well structured in regards to understanding magical concepts.¡±

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Blue Lagoon: In regards to the recent feeding frenzy. To clarify, yes I do have access and control of the tech needed to access the Earth¡¯s Internet. And yes, I am open to providing satelite coverage and access. Now let us talk rent. Computers with appropriate software and satellite uplinks will cost you a once off gold or silver payment to cover production costs. Service will cost two units of energy per month or eighteen per annum if payed by the year. This will include a firewall maintained by my AIs.

    Blue Lagoon: And no, there will be no censorship. You will have access to whatever you can find. I will not aid the CIA or any other alphabet agency to get in touch with you. But then I will not hinder them either.

    Skylark Meadows: Is this offer restricted to Azurea¡¯s current crop or is it open to all of us?

    Blue Lagoon: Everyone is welcome Kai Lung. The more the merrier.

    Unamed (Chee Jong-Su): Wait! Does that mean you have satelites in orbit.

    Blue Lagoon: *snicker* Yes. Complete coverage. Spy and com sats. And other things...

 Chapter 121

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    At a sign from Markowitz Durrell produced his pistol and moved cautiously along the track. Markowitz hummed in approval and followed him. Smyth shrugged and switched off the sat phone he was holding. He replaced it in his backpack and after drawing his pistol he followed his boss.

    Helly, realizing she was being left behind, cursed softly and followed after. She soon found that heels and rough corduroy roads did not mix.

    Half an hour later they came upon a larger and much better maintained corduroy road crossing the marsh. Markowitz flipped his folder open and checked something. He looked to the north. ¡°If this is correct, then there is something called a ¡®dungeon town¡¯ about fifteen kilometres in that direction.¡±

    ¡°What about to the south sir?¡± asked Smyth.

    ¡°A trade town called Barcolton. According to this it was built on the lowest practicable ford on the river Dracos.¡± Markowitz tapped his folder thoughtfully, ¡°Also says it is a riverport. So probably marks the limit of the navigability of the river.¡±

    Helly eyed the new road dubiously before trying to clean her feet before she pulled her shoes on again.

    ¡°Your orders sir,¡± asked Durrell.

    ¡°I believe we will head towards Barcolton. It¡¯s marginally closer and it should be a better source of information. I really have to figure out if this is some glorified hoax or not.¡±

    Markowitz seemed oblivious to the three incredulous looks that were cast his way before he turned and headed south.

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C MEADOWS * * *

    Meadows and Jo were relaxing over lunch when two FBI agents interrupted them.

    ¡°Excuse me commander, I wondered if you could help us,¡± said Jerry.

    Meadows looked up enquiringly and gestured to an empty seat.

    Jerry pulled out a chair and sat. ¡°Assistant-director Markowitz went looking for information and he and the rest of our delegation have vanished. They aren¡¯t answering their phones. I was wondering if you could intercede with Ms Silvestre and find out what had happened to him.¡±

    Meadows sipped his coffee as he considered what to say. He was aware of the FBI¡¯s weird belief that Mary was someone¡¯s patsy. ¡°I suppose I could ask Mary what she knows. You¡¯ll have to accompany me as I don¡¯t know what you will want to know depending on circumstances.¡±

    As Jerry pushed his chair back, Meadows produced his phone and initiated a call. Jerry blinked in surprise and relaxed.

    ¡°Mary, have you got a second?¡± asked Meadows into his phone even as he keyed into speaker mode.

    ¡°Certainly Simon.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve got agent Walker here and he¡¯s worried about the other members of his delegation. Do you happen to know where they are?¡±

    ¡°I can find out, just a second,¡± then followed a longish wait. ¡°Simon, they were reckless and involuntarily took the place of a group scheduled for a training an¡¯ orientation exercise. They¡¯re somewhere on Parthia. Lewis is the one who handles the details so I don¡¯t know where they are exactly.¡±

    ¡°Are they OK?¡± asked Jerry.

    ¡°Probably. Lewis doesn¡¯t usually set these parties down in truly dangerous locations. But if Markowitz is his usual disdainful self he might insult someone.¡± Mary laughed.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Meadows raised an eyebrow at Jerry who winced. ¡°Is there some way to get in touch with them?¡±

    ¡°They should have a couple of sat phones. That is if they bothered with the survival gear that is left for the trainees. ¡¯Course if they have any sense they will have the phones switched off to prolong battery life.¡±

    ¡°Can you send anyone after them?¡± asked Jerry.

    ¡°Why should I? Markowitz is at best a passive enemy of mine. Want me to play you all the recordings I have?¡±

    Jerry and Damien blanched. Meadows observed their faces with interest and he was unable to resist a faint grin. Jo snickered softly.

    ¡°Look Jerry, my best offer. Put together a standard party and I¡¯ll get Lewis to let them follow the clueless one an¡¯ his friends.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by a standard party?¡± asked Jerry.

    ¡°Oh beep! Ask one of the adventurer¡¯s guild folk. One of the ones from Tarifax an¡¯ not one of the clueless Earthlings. Then get back to me.¡±

    Meadows and Jerry looked at the silent phone. ¡°Earthlings?¡± asked Jerry.

    Jo stood and said, ¡°I¡¯ll go ask,¡± before heading off.

    * * *

    By the time Jo returned trailed by the foursome from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, the military delegation had gathered around the two tables that had been shoved together. The two wives were having coffee and cakes nearby.

    Meadows examined the two non-humans, ¡°Welcome, please sit and thank you for being willing to help.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what adventurers are for,¡± said the drow.

    ¡°So long as there is a suitable reward,¡± added the gnome with a grin.

    ¡°Goes without saying,¡± agreed the drow as he pulled out a chair for the young woman.

    The man grinned and said, ¡°I¡¯m Jake, this is Jinny and our friends are Fidget and Switfall. How can we be of help?¡±

    ¡°Some people have gone missing on Parthia, and Mary... Ms Silvestre suggested we set up a standard party to go look for them,¡± said Meadows.

    Fidget looked back at him, ¡°So, what do you need?¡±

    ¡°Um... What is a standard party?¡± asked Jerry.

    Fidget and Swiftfall exchanged a stunned look. Swiftfall looked at Jake and when he didn¡¯t answer, he said, ¡°A standard party consists of four to six adventurers. These parties are often long lasting and are often named.¡±

    Fidget seeing that their hosts still seemed a bit blank added helpfully, ¡°They usually consist of one individual capable of keeping the monster¡¯s attention. Usually someone capable of soaking up a great deal of damage, a few damage dealers, and ideally a healer.¡±

    Jerry looked hopeful, he looked at Admiral Forrester, ¡°can you help us with this party?¡±

    ¡°No. I am not authorising any off the cuff rescue attempts. We are not here to risk personnel in unknown locations with unknown risks.¡±

    Jerry slumped in his seat, then he looked up at the others. ¡°What about you adventurers. You know the planet right?¡±

    Fidget shook her head. ¡°We are not from Parthia. We do have the language due to the generosity of the Earth¡¯s guild and we would be willing to help you. But in a properly formulated quest.¡± Swiftfall nodded his agreement while Jake and Jinny looked dubious.

    Meadows tapped his phone. ¡°Why don¡¯t you contact your superiors and get them to put together a team for the rescue?¡±

    Jerry blinked in surprise. He nodded slowly and, almost reluctantly, produced his phone as he walked away to make the call.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C TOD * * *

    Tod watched bemused as the Queenie idled, hovering, as it were, off the harbour of the town of Black Cove. Black cove was a sorry looking walled town with a small harbour. Its walls were in a sad state of disrepair. Currently a large white flag was fluttering from the flagpole over the citadel.

    Captain Gail Stormchaser had done nothing. Their arrival had sparked panic in the town, they had hauled down their ornate flag and raised the white flag even as the Queenie had taken up position off the harbour mouth.

    ¡°Hah! So that¡¯s it! They had pirates in the town,¡± grinned Gail Stormchaser.

    Tod glanced at her then back at the town. Then he realized the significance of the half naked group of people that were being urged out of the town gates and down to the beach. That and the bloody severed heads that were being tossed into an untidy pile by the gates.

    ¡°Harold, get one of the lads to don the mage robes and pretend to do a scry. Lets see if they produce anyone else.¡±

    Fifteen minutes later the town gate open again and two, much better dressed individuals hurried down to join the small crowd on the beach while another head was added to the collection.

    ¡°Zack, launch the longboats and go collect our passengers.¡±

    Tod watched as the longboats headed for the beach. He also noted that the laser ¡°cannon¡± was now manned and pointing at the town. He looked at Gail, ¡°Well captain, I don¡¯t think I want to end up in this vicinity. What¡¯s Vaar¡¯s Beach like?¡±

    ¡°Booooring. You might like it. It is a small fishing village protected by some treacherous rocky reefs and shifting sand banks.¡±

    ¡°Got to be better than this place,¡± suggested Tod.

    ¡°Maybe. At least the fisher folk have more guts than this bunch,¡± agreed Gail as she watched her boats ferry her passengers from the beach.

 Chapter 122

    * * * EARTH ¨C ARENA OF BLOOD * * *

    Olivier Broussette watched the scene on the wall mounted TV with a certain degree of disbelief. The odd looking group was examining a portal. They looked suspicious and wary. They were talking, but Olli was unable to understand them.

    ¡°So this is some kind of CCTV Frog?¡±

    ¡°Probably the best way to look at it. The System can be helpful at times. This is one of them.¡±

    ¡°What language are they using?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the language they speak in Conimbriga, and most of the towns and lands that used to belong to the old Greyhammer Empire.¡±

    ¡°If I¡¯m going to help them, how am I supposed to talk to them?¡±

    ¡°I have five single use skill crystals with English for them.¡±

    Frog glanced at the screen, ¡°Looks like they¡¯ve decided. There goes their scout. That¡¯s the goblin lass,¡± Frog¡¯s lips thinned in displeasure. ¡°Fingers is an orphan, she ended up on the streets and was taken up by the watch. She¡¯s four, which is about the same as eleven in a human.¡±

    They watched as Fingers ghosted through the portal and inspected the rather damp cave she found herself. She crouched near the exit and waited.

    The next one to brave the portal was the werewolf. The hulking bipedal wolfwoman ducked into the cave and went to guard the entrance. She was followed by a big ram horned grey skinned troll carrying a massive two-handed mace.

    Then came a man in a very ragged classic magicians robe complete with moons and stars. The last two were a big muscular woman with a pair of protruding tusks and a battered and scarred man. They both wore studded leather hauberk and carried shields.

    ¡°The half troll seems to be their leader, his name¡¯s Grey and he is a priest of Ustraldis. He is a level headed sort and cautious. The wolf girl is Ana. She¡¯s an accountant and a follower of Mary the Mother of Monsters.¡±

    Olli glanced sideways at Frog, ¡°Mother of Monsters? The dungeon you said reminded you of the Godfather. She has werewolves? That¡¯s heavy man. Vampires too?¡±

    Frog snorted, ¡°Werewolves are small fry for her Olli. No vampires though. Sea Serpents and Kraken are more her speed.¡± Then he laughed as a thought hit him, ¡°Heh! And those healing little ponies that are all over the news.¡±

    ¡°Mary Silvestre? The girl from Hawaii, she¡¯s your Mother of Monsters? But...!¡±

    ¡°Anyway, the other two are Ax and Lia. Ax is brain damaged; someone purposely healed a brain injury wrong. Lia is a half-orc. They seem competent enough warriors. The mage is a weather mage. He¡¯s the guy you want if you want rain. He¡¯s called Mesca.¡±

    They watched as the oddly assorted group made its cautious way to the next chamber and froze at the sight of sunlight pouring in through the entrance. ¡°Here Olli, I suspect you¡¯ll need the language too. The crystal in the grey wrapping has ¡®common trade (Tarifax)¡¯, Not the language they were speaking but all of them will at least understand it. The other ones are English.¡±

    Olli frowned as he anticipated the resultant headache. He gave himself an instant language lesson and took the passage Frog indicated. He stepped out into the hot Louisiana day. He grinned ruefully when he realized Frog had followed him and was now standing beside the dryad¡¯s tree.

    Then the adventurers emerged squinting at the sunlit day.

    Olli cleared his throat nervously. ¡°Welcome to Earth. My name is Olivier Broussette, and you can call me Olli. Um... Frog asked me to help you out, show you around so to speak.¡±

    ¡°Frog? As in the dungeon, the Arena of Blood?¡± asked Grey. ¡°Does that mean you¡¯re the dungeon¡¯s Voice?¡±

    ¡°Voice?¡± asked Olli.

    ¡°Only unofficially,¡± interjected Frog. ¡°I don¡¯t have a Voice.¡±

    Grey looked from Olli to Frog uncertainly. ¡°Where are we? We seem to be outside but we are still in the dungeon¡¯s domain.¡±

    Frog watched the nervous adventurers cautiously. ¡°My domain ends at the edge of the trees. And as Olli said, you¡¯re on Earth. Another world. A very different world to Tarifax.¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Grey led his fellows out of the miniature jungle that was Frog¡¯s first floor on Earth. Olli followed cautiously. Frog didn¡¯t move. Olli followed them, maintaining his distance.

    Fingers stared at Olli¡¯s truck. ¡°That¡¯s a very strange looking firewagon,¡± she observed.

    ¡°That¡¯s my truck,¡± Olli said. ¡°What¡¯s a firewagon? Oh, I have skill crystals for you with the local language.¡±

    Grey looked around, he seemed somehow downcast. ¡°Don¡¯t people speak Trade? You do. I can¡¯t feel Ustraldis.¡±

    Ana sniffed the air and regarded Grey with pity. ¡°Strange, I can still feel the Mother of Monsters. And a firewagon is a vehicle that works via a steam engine.¡±

    Olli watched as the adventurers went off for a certain distance before forming a huddle to discuss the things they had been told. Olli just hoped they would be reasonable.

    * * *

    Olli watched them return. Grey was in the lead. ¡°Can you send us back to Tarifax?¡±

    ¡°Frog can. His dungeon is present on both worlds.¡±

    The adventurers exchanged looks unhappily. ¡°Maybe later then,¡± said Grey. ¡°Can you put us in touch with the local adventurer¡¯s guild? Or the local authorities? We wouldn¡¯t want to start out by breaking the law.¡±

    Olli felt his mouth dropping open. ¡°I really wouldn¡¯t advise that. Look I was told Blue Lagoon will help Ana; and even has a job for her. Also I believe that she can help you all get all the documentation you need to settle in the US.¡±

    Grey squared his shoulders, ¡°No. We will do things legally.¡±

    Frog moved closer to the limit of his domain and said, ¡°At least let Olli take Fingers to Mary. She is soft on kids and you wouldn¡¯t want Fingers to end up as a child in the CPS.¡±

    ¡°Frog¡¯s right,¡± agreed Olli.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MEADOWS * * *

    Commander Meadows followed a very serious and preoccupied looking admiral through the portal to Washington DC. Once back on Earth he found himself heading to the Pentagon. He exchanged a glance with Jo as they resigned themselves for a long and intensive debrief.

    When he finally got to bed that night Meadows was exhausted and despite that; six hours later he was rushing his breakfast before finding himself once again being debriefed.

    He wasn¡¯t particularly surprised to find the rest of his team present for lunch. It looked that someone in the chain of command had finally realized what Mary represented. He couldn¡¯t blame them, as he himself hadn¡¯t realized until his eyes had been well and truly opened on Parthia.

    Helicopters were suddenly obsolete. It would take a long time before there was enough liftwood but they were obsolete.

    The afternoon was more of the same, though nothing new was coming out. Then they were all ordered to attend a meeting with the admiral.

    * * *

    Admiral Forrester¡¯s aide opened the meeting by introducing the few scientists present. Then the admiral spoke.

    ¡°Just to be clear as to what we are up against I am going to show videos of a few meetings the paranormal FBI agents and management held. Ms Silvestre very kindly let me have copies when I asked her. These meetings took place in their HQ, and later while they were in the Blue Lagoon dungeon. I think you will see that they have not made things easier for us.¡±

    There was silence while the videos ran. Nobody seemed to be particularly surprised.

    ¡°I believe there are changes being made. State is preparing proposals and will be initiating formal talks with the Tyrant of the Isles. An interesting title our Ms Silvestre picked for herself, or was lumbered with. One thing is abundantly clear; she doesn¡¯t seem to believe in one person, one vote.

    ¡°We have had some informal talks. Meadows you would appear to have managed to not antagonise her. She also seems to be well disposed to our military. We are promoting you and expanding your team. You will be visiting Parthia to act as our liaison.

    ¡°Try to find out what happened to Sergeant Harmond.

    ¡°Any questions. Suggestions.¡±

    Meadows looked up. ¡°Why don¡¯t we offer to buy that destroyer and its two liftwood enabled fighter bombers?¡±

    The admiral raised an eyebrow. ¡°It was described as proof of concept. Why should we buy it?¡±

    ¡°To see if Mary has portals big enough to allow it to sail from Parthia to Earth. And hopefully find out where that portal is located.¡±

    Admiral Forester smiled slightly in thought. ¡°You believe she does then. That might make it worthwhile. And would help sell the idea. I¡¯ll pass it on.¡±

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary was lounging on her throne in the godsrealm. She was leaning back with her ankles crossed as she perused a thick sheaf of papers. Several of the local gods were taking their ease while the messenger who had delivered the missive was quite happily snacking at the laden table in the middle of the room.

    ¡°Hmm, felicitations bla, bla, bla....¡± Mary flipped one sheet onto the floor, glanced at the next and discarded it. She looked up briefly then flipped through the document, discarding page after page.

    Finally on the second to last page she spotted the meat of the matter. She scanned the three paragraphs without showing any interest. She glanced at the last page and it joined the others on the floor.

    ¡°Well let us see,¡± Mary produced a sheet of paper and a pad to rest it on. ¡°Hmm, ¡®To the Great God of the lower mid tier; Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz the King of Rodents, overseer of the Gods of the lower tier and their Gardens. Many thanks for your kind invitation. I must respectfully decline as I find myself too busy here on the lower realms.¡¯ Right, well that will have to do.¡±

    She looked up to see all her court gazing at her with horror.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Mary, you can¡¯t send that to one of the great gods!¡±

    ¡°Why not? It¡¯ll do him good. One page. Nice and concise unlike his effort that had close on twenty to tell me he wished to see me.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t. Look at the poor messenger. Can¡¯t you see he¡¯s shocked?¡±

    ¡°Looks to me that he¡¯s choking on his laughter. Here, Take this to Maak¡¯aym¡¯ooz with my compliments.¡±

    Mary watched in amusement as her court descended on the messenger and collaborated to pad out her refusal into a ultra polite four page letter. She chuckled as she signed it especially as she spotted the messenger pocket her original missive with a smirk.

 Chapter 123

    * * * EARTH ¨C OFF THE HORN OF AFRICA * * *

    The captain of the Sazae Maru looked out to port at the five speedboats heading towards his ship. Their crews were brandishing AKs and RPG-7s. Right on the horizon the haze of the African coast was visible. It looked like their luck had run out and it was their turn to be targeted by the local pirates.

    Captain Morishige tried to think of something constructive to do, all too aware of his crew, many of whom were watching the pirates approach glumly.

    Then the rearmost speedboat flew up into the air and landed upside down. Captain Morishige sensed more than saw a disturbance in the ocean near the wreck. Next there was a swirl in the sea as if something huge and fast was moving just under the surface. And another speedboat was struck and wrecked.

    Two more lazy swirls later and there was only one speedboat left. Its crew was firing wildly at the ocean. To no effect as a huge serpent surfaced directly under it lifting it into the air. The boat smashed back into the sea and the huge sea serpent surfaced again, only to swallow two swimmers before vanishing once more under the waves.

    A second serpent raised its head above the waves and watched the container ship with curiosity for a minute or so before submerging again.

    The crew of the Sazae Maru gazed at the placid ocean, marred only by some patches of wreckage. They were unable to spot any survivors. Not that any of the crew wanted to launch a boat to check.

    It didn¡¯t take the crew long to upload two videos of the incident onto their social media pages.

    * * * EARTH ¨C OLIVIER BROUSSETTE * * *

    Olli was beginning to think he had never talked so much in his life. He was profoundly grateful that the language skills came with some cultural references to aid understanding. He wasn¡¯t looking forward to introducing this group of refugees to the local law.

    He was profoundly grateful to his brother in law. He had turned up and had managed to drag his wife along. They had been willing to help him by taking the little goblin girl to Florida. He hadn¡¯t counted on his sister of all people finding the dungeon¡¯s frog people cute. And Frog had surprised him by passing over a stack of twenty-dollar bills for the trip. He felt a little guilty for checking the serial numbers.

    At least it hadn¡¯t been difficult to get the adventurers to change clothes, though Frog had had to provide alternative longer dresses for the women as they had been completely scandalized by the initial offerings. His sister¡¯s skin-tight jeans had been rather an eye opener for the ladies.

    Olli sighed, he watched the others wave good bye to Fingers who was paying no attention, being as she was, totally engrossed in some game on her new Smartphone.

    At least his truck was big. It needed to be with Grey. There was going to be an added element of fun as thanks to Frog all the immigrants now spoke with broad New Orleans accents. Just like Frog himself.

    Olli pulled in at Houma¡¯s town hall. He led his sacrificial lambs. He was unsurprised to find that they were the centre of attention. Olli was surprised at how easy it proved to be believed; at least once they got past the purely local level. Their secret weapon proved to be the werewolf girl Ana. Once she embraced her inner accountant and started insisting on meticulous documentation and a legalistic approach. Ana, even without knowing the local laws caught several inconsistencies. And she chased them all to death.

    Olli watched from a corner having been almost completely sidelined. And then two representatives of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild turned up with two agents from the FBI¡¯s paranormal division.

    * * * EARTH ¨C JEREMIAH WALKER * * *

    Jerry had got back to a major shitstorm. The Paranormal Division and the FBI as a whole was getting a major shake up. They had made lots of enemies by their political shenanigans and now the knives were out. Jerry suspected that even if Markowitz was recovered the man would get back to unemployment at best.

    Then he had spotted this report about refugees from another world and he decided to grab the case. He figured Louisiana was far enough from Washington DC for Damien and himself. On a hunch he called Jinny while on the way to the airport. He was not surprised at her enthusiasm at a chance to get away from the press.

    Jerry and Damien relaxed for an hour or so after they got to Louis Armstrong airport in New Orleans. They agreed that under the circumstances they might as well make use of any knowledge the Adventurer¡¯s Guild might have. If there really was another portal to another world they had to know more about it. They spent the wait researching the local CIA offices and agents. The last thing they wanted was to find themselves on another world again.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    Then Damien spotted Jinny and told Jerry. Jerry rose and saw that Jinny was accompanied by Swiftfall. After a brief hello the four of them headed out to pick up the vehicle Jerry had reserved and they were on their way to meet the new group.

    Swiftfall proved very useful, he was able to confirm that they spoke one of the local languages from Tarifax in addition to that world¡¯s version of a trade language. Also he was able to verify their guild credentials. Not that that meant much but it was nice to know.

    Jerry slotted in behind the cavalcade of official vehicles who were on their way to confirm the existence of yet another dungeon. He was only too glad that he would not be transiting to Tarifax, the place sounded terrible. He found a place to park on the overgrown shoulder. The number of vehicles that had come on this jaunt bade well to close the road.

    Jerry and Damien got out of their car, and were followed by Jinny and Swiftfall. The area they were in was humid, lush and overgrown. Jerry assumed it was typical bayou country. In the background there was the buzz of insects and the constant calling of frogs.

    The frogs fell silent when a member of the local sheriffs department stepped into one of the more overgrown areas. The man stopped and seemed to be staring into space with an incredulous look on his face. Jerry moved up beside him, curious and saw:

    { You have found a dungeon: The Arena of Blood }

    After a short wait, several huge frogs emerged to watch the intruders, both on the ground and in the trees. And Jerry noted they were carrying what looked like blowpipes. Then there were further rustlings in the undergrowth, and a burly shaven headed man emerged from the undergrowth. ¡°Welcome y¡¯all to my dungeon, the Arena of Blood. My name¡¯s Fredrick Richards Olpe-Garrison but everyone calls me Frog. And this avatar is unable to leave the domain of my dungeon.¡±

    ¡°Interesting, this is nothing like the Arena of Blood in Conimbriga,¡± said Swiftfall.

    ¡°Well nobody is trying to enslave me here on Earth. It makes a big difference Mr. Drow,¡± retorted Frog.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Markowitz was glad when they left the Dracos Mire. It meant less biting bugs and was another confirmation of the map they had found in the folders. Three-quarters of an hour later they stopped for a rest and to watch the big gravelled east west trade road.

    Markowitz mopped his forehead with his dirty handkerchief. He watched a caravan of six big wagons each pulled by teams of eight oxen glumly. It was becoming more obvious with each passing hour that they were not on Earth. His lingering hopes were fast fading. And then there were the groups that had passed them heading north to Rivak¡¯s Folly, the other dungeon. All of them were armed and armoured with primitive gear. He didn¡¯t dare use the sat phones they had found. They were bound to be bugged.

    Wearily he rose and joined the trade road heading west. Behind him Durrell followed. Smyth fished around in his backpack locating one of the language skill crystals. With some lingering trepidation he used it. He didn¡¯t notice Helli scowling as she suddenly realised she had been used as a guinea pig to test the crystals. Reluctantly she hobbled after them due to a broken heel.

    Hours later they arrived at Barcolton, the walls were not particularly impressive as they were not particularly high. The road they were on curved to the south and ended at a gateway set between two squat towers. Several men and women in light armour were keeping an eye on people entering. It looked like they were collecting a toll.

    Markowitz wrinkled his nose in disgust; even here outside the town it smelled. He suspected the town¡¯s sewers were faulty or nonexistent. He waited in the short queue and soon found himself at the head of the line. The guard said something but he couldn¡¯t understand the woman.

    ¡°Sir, she says the toll is three bits,¡± translated Helli.

    ¡°What¡¯s a bit anyway?¡± asked Markowitz.

    The guardswoman said something else, and once again Helli translated. ¡°She says to stand aside if you can¡¯t pay the toll sir. And a bit is a copper coin.¡±

    Rather reluctantly Markowitz stood aside.

    * * * EARTH ¨C KENYA * * *

    David and Rebecca Jacobson were excited. It was their fourteenth birthday today and their father has arranged for them to go scuba diving in the Kiunga Marine National Reserve in Kenya. This was the first holiday since their mother had died earlier in the year. For the whole family, it was a healing experience.

    Then that night while they were lazing on the beach watching the ripples that passed for waves in the bay they received another present. Blue screens.

    They started to chat excitedly amongst themselves about what to do. Deciding to be different from their friends they ran to the water of the bay and dove in. Soon they were treading water in the light of the moon.

    ¡°What shall we be David? I don¡¯t want to be an elf like cousin Bertie,¡± giggled Becky.

    ¡°Boring. I dunno, but I think we should be something that has to do with the sea Becky.¡±

    ¡°How about becoming one of Mother¡¯s chosen. Octopus is fun but rrimited. But why not sea human?¡±

    There was a short silence. ¡°Who said that?¡± chorused the twins.

    ¡°Why, I did. The name¡¯s Becca.¡±

    ¡°W¡ªwhere are you?¡± asked David. Then he paled slightly as a huge octopus all but surfaced between him and the shore.

    ¡°Herro, I¡¯m a priestess of Mother, the sea goddess. It wourrd prrease her if you chose sea humans,¡± said Becca the octopus.

    The twins quickly lost their fear at the novelty of a talking octopus. They liked the advantages offered by sea human, especially with the cheats that Becca showed them, and helped them to acquire.

    They lost a couple of hours playing in the bay with their new friend and when they finally decided to call it a day, they left with the official blessing of a priestess of the Mother of Monsters.

    * * *

    A week later when the Somali pirates struck the resort they were captured along with several other rich foreigners. There wasn¡¯t really much they could do against thirty or so heavily armed thugs. It was only the presence of their father that kept the twins from going overboard.

    The Twins who had not had a religious education nonetheless prayed fervently for help, and thanks to Becca¡¯s blessing their prayers were heard by the Mother of Monsters.

    Under the surface Becca followed and prayed to her goddess.

    Three days after they were deposited in the training camp they awoke to the sound of combat. Or more precisely ¨C slaughter. Then they were, all three on their way to Parthia.

 Chapter 124

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    The four misplaced agents were sitting on a tree trunk at a small distance from the north gate of the town. From the assorted debris and the blackened fire pit they assumed the tree trunk had been left for the use of people like them.

    Finally, Markowitz exhaled noisily, giving in to the inevitable. They had checked and were sure that they could enter the town by trading Durrell¡¯s swiss army knife. However they wouldn¡¯t have enough cash to manage to spend the night, other than on the streets, and they all reckoned that would be a bad idea.

    ¡°Fine! So be it, Durrell pass me one of those sat phones. We need to risk making a call.¡±

    The other three barely glanced at each other, but they all seemed to relax. Durrell reached into one of the backpacks and produced the sat phone. Then he passed it to Markowitz who had his smartphone in his hand as he consulted his contacts.

    ¡°This is Markowitz. Please put me through to director Perez.¡±

    There was a long period while inane music played; then Markowitz heard, ¡°John, Where the hell are you? Have you any idea the mess we are all in?¡±

    Markowitz felt the beginning of rage, ¡°We are on Parthia director. Outside the gates of a small town named Barcolton. We are unable to enter because we don¡¯t have any local currency.¡±

    After giving a brief report, and adding some more details culled from their map Markowitz switched the sat phone off. He looked up and almost snarled. ¡°Director Perez is chasing some things up. She asked us to phone again in an hour¡¯s time.¡±

    * * *

    They spent their wait watching the scanty coming and goings along the road. The most interesting thing occurred when two scruffy looking individuals were almost turned away when the gate guards refused, vociferously, to accept a silver coin they offered for the toll. They were finally allowed through when they dug out some copper coins. Just before entering the town they threw the offending coin away.

    Finally, after what seemed like far longer than an hour Markowitz grunted and made the call. He didn¡¯t have to wait as long this time.

    After the call he looked grim. ¡°We can wait here for a bunch of special forces guys and some specialists. They are already on the way to one of the portals. Or we can head back to the dungeon. If we do we might have to return here. The portal we used was a one way one and we can¡¯t get back home through it. Ideas?¡±

    Helli looked at her sore feet and said, ¡°I vote for waiting here. That way, worst comes to the worst we will only have to make the walk once. And I suspect it will be dark before we get back.¡±

    Smyth looked at the town. ¡°This is an easy spot to find.¡±

    Markowitz frowned. ¡°We¡¯ll wait. Did anyone catch what was up with that coin?¡±

    Smyth looked up, ¡°The guard was rather profanely stating that Alsaam¡¯s Shekel is worthless as it contains virtually no silver.¡±

    * * * THE MOON ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary stepped through the portal to the moon, on arrival she greeted Lewis and Alice even as she made her way to the starlight lounge surrounded by her guards. She grinned as she proceeded through the public spaces at the sight of all the tourists and workers.

    ? I see the rentin¡¯ of offices is going well Lewis. ?

    ? It is indeed Mary. We have many rentals from all over the world. Mostly multinationals looking for a prestige address and intelligence agencies. ?

    ? Intelligence agencies? Are they mad? ?

    ? They haven¡¯t figured it out yet Mother. ?

    Mary took a seat in the corner of the room and inspected the harsh view before looking up at the Earth shining in the ¡®sky¡¯. Her guards dispersed to cover the whole room. Only then did the main doors open and the small group of well dressed men and women enter. She rose to greet them before resuming her seat.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Now what can I do for you?¡±

    The delegation managed to overcome their awe of the view and took the seats they were offered. Their spokesman cleared his throat and started. ¡°Ms Silvestre, how should we address you?¡±

    Mary noted the two security specialists eyes dart around nervously. ¡°As you are doing. Ms Silvestre works and is polite enough. We might progress to Mary. Now in my palace on Parthia or on Tarifax, My Lady would be appropriate.¡±

    ¡°And on Fragatta?¡±

    ¡°Fragatta is different. I have no country there, but the whole population owe me for their lives an¡¯ know it. Just be polite, Ms Silvestre or my Lady. Just be careful, if you call me Mother then the locals will make assumptions you might not like.¡±

    ¡°Mother? I¡¯ve heard... what assumptions?¡± asked a grey haired man who was sitting almost bolt upright.

    Mary showed a lopsided grin, ¡°Why, that you were one of mine. That you looked to me.¡±

    After a very short pause the spokesman said, ¡°We have much to discuss. But first we must arrange for the recovery of Markowitz and the three agents with him.¡±

    Mary just looked at him and waited.

    ¡°Will you allow us to send a group of special forces people with some specialists to recover them. Can you help?¡±

    ¡°Do you know where they are? And under the circumstances the only help I will give, is access to my portals an¡¯ a basic guide of the location you wish to access. I will sell you local currency, equipment and usage of the portal.¡±

    ¡°You expect us to haggle now?¡±

    ¡°No. I expect our subordinates to haggle. Here we will discuss the outlines. What exactly do you want?¡±

    ¡°We want to send some thirty men to Parthia. The dungeon near Barcolton. And then to pass the agents back to Earth.¡±

    ¡°Barcolton?¡± Mary looked blank for a moment. ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s where Lewis¡¯ random portal dumped ¡¯em. Sixteen at most, that¡¯s a raid. Unusual but not unheard of. Thirty would make the locals uneasy an¡¯ make misunderstandings more likely.¡±

    ¡°Could the rescue party stay on after they return the agents to the dungeon for return.¡±

    Mary cocked her head to one side. ¡°They can do what they like. I don¡¯t own Parthia. But you misunderstand. Lewis¡¯s portals to Parthia are one way only. If you want to get back you need to use one of mine. And those are in Blue Lagoon.¡±

    ¡°And how are our men going to get to your island?¡±

    ¡°I can have captain Tomcat and his Alessandrina¡¯s Glory at Suz in about a week. Suz is the port on the estuary of the river Dracos. The same river Barcolton is on. You can pay their passage in USD here or in the States.¡±

    Mary watched the delegation leave with a grin. ¡®Oh Tomcat; I hope you have fun; you¡¯re goin¡¯ to find Helli irresistible. She looks and acts very like most of your wives.¡¯

    She rose and headed back to her private portal surrounded by guards. ¡®Got to maintain the image of a tin pot dictator. Let them underestimate me, I can¡¯t believe how many still do. The Navy seems to have figured it out but seem to have difficulty communicating with PC civs. Well got to see what to do with the kid Frog wished on me. I wonder if Rickie¡¯s up to takin¡¯ in another stray? An¡¯ if she¡¯s goin¡¯ to be one of mine then I gotta fix her, a goblin¡¯s lifespan is obscenely short.¡¯

    * * * EARTH / PARTHIA ¨C CORPORAL ROY ANDERSON * * *

    Roy was feeling distinctly out of his depth. He had been seconded to the recce team as a specialist with some local knowledge. Nobody paid attention to his explanations regarding his paucity of said experience.

    So here he was in a bus with eight fully equipped lunatics who liked to jump out of perfectly good aircraft, along with their lieutenant and a captain. The other specialists were an odd bunch. All young and fit naturally, the medic¡¯s presence was reassuring. The padre struck him as a bizarre choice, almost as strange as the marine biologist. She looked bewildered. The Gunny was reassuring.

    They filed off the bus and into the Portals shop under the full glare of publicity. Then he stepped through the portal behind the first fire team and the lieutenant.

    They were met by a couple of guides on the portals hall on the moon. The rabbit girl smiled when she saw him. She stepped forward and handed him a small envelope. He opened it and smiled at the two rings and the pendent it contained. He vaguely noticed that Claire exchanged a few words with the marine biologist and she also handed her an envelope much like his.

    Roy blessed Gloria for the suggestion. It had reduced his savings but his purchases from MagiTech could prove a lifesaver.

    They moved forward to a roped off portal that had a flashing red light above it. One by one they stepped through and found themselves in a stone room. The only furniture was a wooden table and five chairs. There was a pile of ring binders on the table along with fifteen envelopes. Then there were four canvas backpacks against the wall. There was only one door in the room.

    The captain picked one of the ring binders and found the envelope with his name. He ripped it open and used the skill crystal it contained, then he fastened the pendant next to his dog tags.

    ¡°Right. Find your envelope; use the skill crystal to learn the local trade language. The pendant is a small storage device. Currently all it contains is a small amount of local currency. Silver and copper coins. I¡¯m told the copper coins are called bits and the silver usually go by guilders. There are twenty bits to each guilder. You all know what we have been tasked with. Let¡¯s go.¡±

    Roy transferred the coins to his new storage ring, joining the considerably greater store of coins that already resided therein.

    Then they applied the insect repellent they had been advised to fetch and left the dungeon in the swamp. Night fell as they left the swamp and it was dark when they reached the main road. Using their torches the group headed west.

    They found the FBI paranormal agents huddled together around a meagre fire. The town was closed for the night so Roy was soon helping set up their tents.

 Chapter 125

    * * * EARTH ¨C OFF THE HORN OF AFRICA * * *

    A swarm of small snakes emerged from the waves under the feeble light of the new moon. After a brief hesitation they moved inland towards the big camp. They easily slipped through the wire fence surrounding if.

    Down on the beach four brown rats swam ashore. They shook themselves roughly dry and followed in the wake of the snakes. Once in the semi permanent encampment they sought out their targets.

    In a relatively comfortable shack the rats found the man they were seeking. They shimmered taking on the shape of humanoids. Their specialist interrogator grew to his full height of one meter sixty. With a few swift gestures and a muttered incantation he hit the sleeping man with his mind spell.

    While their colleague was maintaining his spell, the other three jumped onto the bed and started whispering questions into the man¡¯s ears and recording the answers.

    After they were satisfied the three resumed their rat forms while the interrogator inspected their victim. ¡°Huh, he was weak. This was just too easy.¡± Then he too resumed his rat form.

    The four left the shack seeking their other target while the small snakes with their potent paralytic venom sought out any active patrols.

    * * *

    The commander of the small party of mercenaries watched through his night vision binoculars as the African coast approached. The boat they were on was idling along quietly. They were almost half an hour early, and everything was quiet.

    They all were a bit apprehensive due to the stories of the gigantic aggressive sea serpents that had been sighted several times in the vicinity. But they were being well paid.

    He had been impressed with the sleek patrol boat and it¡¯s small but highly professional crew. The only one of the crew who spoke any English was the helmsman, and he spoke with what the commander thought was a thick Russian accent. Though he was fairly sure they were not speaking Russian amongst themselves.

    The equipment they had been offered as a bonus was all cutting edge US mil spec stuff. Even so Rice was ready to cut and run. He honestly didn¡¯t see how their paymaster would be able to take out the terrorist cum pirate training camp.

    Then Rice spotted something unexpected, he stiffened and swung his binoculars to scan the sky over the camp. ¡®What the hell is that? It¡¯s alive! And about the size of a small plane.¡¯

    ¡°Fuck!¡± exclaimed Gus, his second in command, just as the creature dived and unleashed lightning on the sleeping camp. ¡°What the fuck!¡± exclaimed Gus.

    Rice and his men stared as six of those flying things rained down lightning and magic on the hapless camp. And if that was not enough eight gigantic serpents came ashore, with riders, and smashed their way into the camp, blasting away with what looked like magic and lasers.

    Rice jerked when their frequency hopping secure radio spoke with the voice and accent of their paymaster. ¡°Hey general. Time for you to move in, the prisoners are in two locations. The first is the possibility marked ¡®B¡¯ on the chart. The second is the building just to the north of ¡®C¡¯.¡±

    ¡°On our way. Will those snakes recognise us as friendlies?¡±

    ¡°Da.¡±

    Their boat surged towards the shore and stopped in an unnaturally calm patch of water near the shore. The crew lowered a gangplank onto the damp sand. Rice led his men ashore, they all watched apprehensively as one of the serpents moved past them and re-entered the sea. The woman riding it had a sheathed sword and strange looking weapon slung over her shoulder. She gave them a thumbs up as she went past.

    The second serpent they came across had two people casting magic on it. It looked like it had taken a RPG hit but the horrendous wound was visibly closing. Then they reached their first destination. They found three sleeping hostages and three dead guards. It looked like they¡¯d been stabbed where they lay.

    Rice sent half his men carrying the sleeping hostages back to the boat while he led the rest of his men to the second location. There they found four more scared hostages. And one empty cell.

    ¡°Calm down, we¡¯re here to free you. We have a boat down by the shore.¡±

    ¡°How are we going to get there through the camp,¡± asked a dirty bushy bearded middle-aged man. ¡°And who were those sword wielding savages that came and fetched the Jacobsons?¡±

    ¡°Never mind, we have to hurry.¡± And with that Rice and his men rushed the former hostages down to their boat. When they passed the spot the wounded serpent had been all that was left were tracks and a patch of burnt ground where the blood had lain.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    The unnatural calm patch of sea vanished as they headed away from the shore. Rice watched the skies with apprehension as two pairs of those lightning producing creatures maintained top cover for them. He didn¡¯t take his eyes off them until they left and dropped down to land on the sea before diving under the surface.

    Only then did he try his radio.

    ¡°The hostages want to know what happened to the Jacobsons.¡±

    ¡°They are on their way home. The boss wasn¡¯t amused that Murad dared touch one of her people.¡±

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Things had improved after the military had arrived, late as usual. The captain had passed him a briefcase. The contents were not very reassuring but they sort of made sense. He and the agents under him were now officially on paid leave. He understood it as a technicality to cover them as FBI agents outside the territory of the US. Then there was a letter of credit and twenty small gold and one hundred silver coins.

    He resigned himself to becoming a tag along. But he would keep his eyes open.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C ROY ANDERSON * * *

    Roy was up with the dawn. He watched with interest as the gates swung open and the local guards established themselves. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed their biologist pass the female agent a pair of sneakers. He gained the impression that the woman had made a friend for life with that gesture.

    His nose told him that Barcolton did not pay as much attention to sanitation as Maalea Two. It was surprisingly easy to enter the town. All that was required was the payment of the modest toll and they were in. There was the relatively broad well-paved road that led from the gates and over the bridge into the main part of town. With the exception of the trade road the town looked chaotic and unplanned. There was a large market surrounded by booth like shops on the other side of the river. The river itself on the downstream side of the bridge was lined with docks, and full of barges and small boats, and even a couple of small galleys.

    Roy kept an eye on his companions, trying to measure their competence. Looked like the weakest link was Markowitz. Simply because the man seemed determined to disbelieve anything that ran counter to his previous experience. The padre was obviously ill at ease. He looked lost, adrift. But at least he was military and had training to fall back on. The marine biologist who was named Cas had to be dragged away from the two fish stalls in the market.

    Just over an hour later they were all installed on a reasonably comfortable riverboat and heading downstream. Roy grinned as he remembered how the captain had handled Markowitz. Markowitz had wanted to remain in town to look around, but the captain, very sensibly had decided that they had better await their ride in Suz. Just in case their ride¡¯s master was disinclined to wait around for them.

    He sat next to Cas. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Roy. Do you mind if I ask a question.¡±

    Cas looked at him with a faint air of resignation. ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    ¡°I noticed, while we were at Barcolton, how some of the locals seemed wary when they saw that brooch you are wearing. Can you tell me what it is and what it means?¡±

    Cas snorted in surprise as she fingered the brooch in question, a leaping dolphin superimposed on a coiled something in silver. ¡°That is not the question I was expecting. It was in the envelope Claire handed me on the moon. The note from Mary only said it would help me with some people and to wear it somewhere discreet, but where it could be seen.¡±

    Roy blinked, surprised. ¡°Mary, as in Mary, Tyrant of the Isles?¡±

    Cas¡¯ eyes narrowed. ¡°Well Mary is headstrong.¡±

    * * *

    Suz was smaller than Barcolton by about a third. Its walls were far more impressive. It lay on the south bank of the estuary. The estuary itself was large and had the potential to be a good port. To Roy¡¯s eye the water looked shallow and would need dredging to meet its true potential.

    As they were waiting to disembark Roy noted captain Shultz speaking with the riverboat¡¯s master. As they shuffled towards the gangplank he overheard:

    ¡°... if the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory has arrived. I know she¡¯s not due for two days yet but.¡±

    ¡°Tomcat is due in two days? I¡¯ve got to tell...¡± said their boat¡¯s master excitedly.

    ¡°How do I find out...¡±

    ¡°You had best ask at Ocidon¡¯s Gift, it¡¯s an inn, or at the Lazy Cat. Another inn. I¡¯ve got to tell the wife to lock up the girls...¡±

    And then Roy was on the gangplank and heading for the dock. He joined the others while they waited for captain Shultz.

    ¡°Hey man, how come you have no packs? You were issued a load just like us.¡±

    Roy looked at his fellow corporal and grinned. ¡°You guys haven¡¯t figured out about these storage rings yet have you? The pendants we were issued were the smallest I¡¯ve seen, and yet if you¡¯re careful it can handle a lot of stuff. This ring,¡± Roy tapped the plain gold ring on his hand, ¡°I bought from MagiTech. I¡¯ve stored everything in it. Everything and it still has room to spare.¡±

    ¡°How man, mine¡¯s full and I haven¡¯t put much in it?¡±

    ¡°Look it takes items. So instead of storing a shirt, bundle all your clothes in a bag and store that. It will still count as one item. Unless the bag is too big then it will count as two. It is a case of trial and error.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C ARENA OF BLOOD * * *

    Frog and Angel talked with the assorted collection of agents, law enforcement people and representatives of the nearby town of Houma. They were both tired of the endless round robin of talks and Frog had had to demonstrate how his avatar was dismissed if it tried to leave his domain.

    Angel used the Dungeon Exchange to keep every other dungeon and proto-dungeon on Earth informed. All in all it looked like there would be much happening in adapting and creating laws to regulate the situation. Frog could see a lot of lawyers getting rich soon.

    Frog watched most of his visitors leave. Overall he was satisfied, it looked that there would be the near constant presence of sheriffs department on his doorstep. And he had managed to convince the people present that they had no right to go deeper in his dungeon than the rooms he designated as safe rooms. At least without due cause and a valid search warrant.

    Angel was in her usual perch, sitting on his shoulder. ¡°Why did you react like you did when Mary offered to lend you her new lawyer?¡±

    ¡°Because Angel, well Perry Mason is a fictional lawyer. And if he was to turn up, god knows what would happen.¡±

    ¡°I think we are going to find out. I think she was quite serious.¡±

 Chapter 126

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary smiled as Harvey and Suzette Landry were shown in to the boardroom she was using. Tessa and Lissa watched from where they stood by the far wall. Fingers followed them in looking around curiously and still clutching her new smartphone.

    ¡°Welcome to the Silvestre Boat Yard. Please serve yourself, you will find refreshments on the sideboard. I strongly advise you to ignore the fried sickletooth cave lizards. They are there for Fingers.¡±

    ¡°Sickletooths... Where?¡± said Fingers as she headed straight for the sideboard.

    Mary grinned at the girl¡¯s broad New Orleans accent. ¡°Serve yourself Fingers. No one else will like them, especially as they¡¯re mildly poisonous for humans.¡±

    After a short meet and greet Mary reassured the Landrys that she meant Fingers no harm. Then Mary gave them a quick tour of the Moon and Mars.

    Several hours later the Landrys left the boatyard with a pet carrier with two little ponies for their young daughter. Additionally they picked up a tail from the local FBI.

    * * *

    Mary returned to the caverns beneath her dungeon off Maui with Fingers. She used the opportunity to examine the goblin girl.

    ¡°Fingers, you have a choice. I know a young cat beastman who has a soft spot for children. He has already adopted two street kids. He is a journeyman enchanter. He will soon be recognised as a master enchanter. He is more than skilled enough, and he is teaching the older of his children. The younger is only five and well... she is going to be learning from Tessa and Lissa and some others I will send her way from time to time.

    ¡°They live on Parthia. A world less advanced technologically than Tarifax, but equally or more so when it comes to magic. And you can breath the air without masks.

    ¡°Choose. Go and join a new family on Parthia with the guarantee of teaching to gain a respected career, I can send you back to Tarifax. Or you could stay on Earth, but then you would have to remain in one of my dungeons or on the Moon or Mars for several years until the countries of Earth recognise you as an adult.

    ¡°And will you allow me to give you a human lifespan?¡±

    ¡°What about my friends. Can I see them if I go somewhere other than Earth?¡± asked Fingers.

    ¡°I see no reason why not Fingers. Especially after you are an adult. And they could visit you wherever you decide to go. I recommend Parthia. But it is your choice. And do you have another name? Fingers is likely to cause problems wherever you end up.¡±

    Fingers grinned widely showing many sharp teeth. ¡°Mama called me Mrald. And can you really give the same number of years as a human?¡±

    ¡°Well then, Mrald it is. And yes, easily, I¡¯ve done it before.¡±

    ¡°Then please. And I¡¯ll try the enchanter. See how it goes.¡±

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C RICKIE CATMAN * * *

    Rickie watched the rollers breaking on the shore and Han and Nel playing in the foam the waves left behind. The head and loops of the huge sea serpent just offshore reassured him that nothing was going to emerge from the sea to snap up his son and daughter. The sun was rising slowly hovering a few degrees above the horizon. Behind the dunes their horses cropped the scrubby grass being kept from straying by his enchantments.

    There! Rickie stood and made his way slowly towards the waves. Han and Nell stopped racing about and made their way to him. As he stepped onto the wet sand the waves seemed to part as a pale dolphin danced towards the shore diving at last and emerging as Mary.

    Rickie watched as Mary rode a wave and stepped ashore. She grinned at them. ¡°¡¯Mornin¡¯ Rickie, ¡¯mornin¡¯ Nel, Han. I hope you are all well. You ready to make Master Rickie?¡±If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Rickie grinned as the awestruck looks of his children warred with surprise at the informality of the moment. Then Tessa and Lissa emerged from the sea flanking a unusually pale goblin girl child. Tessa and Lissa shook themselves free of water much to the amusement of Han and Nel. Mrald didn¡¯t appear particularly amused at the unexpected showers.

    They spent some hours on the beach. Nel glumped, as she was unable to play with her brother. Both Tessa and Lissa made good use of the opportunity to tutor her. Rickie smiled proudly at her industry, even as he sighed at the added problems her learning shadow magic might cause.

    Mrald proved to be a serious little thing. She had a class and levels so she would be considered a partial adult. Under the circumstances it would not matter. Thanks to Mother performing the adoption ceremony herself; nobody would be able to deny Mrald was his daughter.

    He watched Han play with Mrald and was happy to see they seemed to get on well.

    ¡°Rickie, I added a dash of cat ¡¯folk to the girl. So now she will age like one of you lot, not like a goblin. She¡¯s barely eleven-years-old. Just warnin¡¯ you ¡¯cause though she agreed to it, I suspect she will not expect to take another three years to reach fourteen.¡±

    ¡°You used my template didn¡¯t you Mother.¡±

    ¡°Yep. Hope you don¡¯t mind.¡±

    Rickie grinned ruefully. ¡°No. No I don¡¯t mind.¡±

    ¡°Come visit Maalea Two. Tomcat should be puttin¡¯ in at Lafunda in ¡¯bout ten days. He¡¯s got a bunch of Earthers on board and I¡¯d like your opinion on them. Also want your kids opinions. Suspect they might let their guards down in front of kids. ¡¯Specialy one as cute as Nel.¡±

    * * *

    The sun was just starting to go down when Rickie and his little family watched Mary and the leopard girls return to sea and disappear under the waves.

    Mrald put her hand in Rickie¡¯s. ¡°She really is one of the goddess of the Drow, isn¡¯t she?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Though she is primarily one of the goddess of the Seas on Parthia and the goddess of the seas on Tarifax and Fragatta. And of most of the weres too.¡±

    * * *

    Rickie turned and headed for the horses. He quickly saddled them with Han¡¯s help. He was surprised that Mrald had never ridden a horse. Their journey back to Lafunda took longer than he had expected. It was a good three hours later that he was able to return the horses to the livery stable he had hired them from.

    Then they made their way back to his hired shop. They called in at the Harried Pig for dinner on the way.

    On the following day he left Han in charge of showing Mrald round and of keeping an eye on their shop. Then he went to the Enchanter¡¯s Guild to undertake his exams for Master.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MEADOWS * * *

    Captain Meadows was still in Washington DC. His new rank had been a mixed blessing. Currently he was being run off his feet setting up his expanded detail and preparing everyone and those family members who wanted to accompany their spouses to Maalea Two.

    At the present moment he was reassuring Gloria Anderson that her husband was alive and well. The last report he had placed the marine corporal on a riverboat about half way between Barcolton and Suz.

    Gloria was determined to be there to meet her husband when he arrived in Maalea Two, and he was able to inform her that as Roy Anderson had been seconded to his enlarged detail there would be no problem with her being there.

    As the woman left his borrowed office he looked to his second in command. Lieutenant commander Anna Partlow shook her head. ¡°But there is no guarantee we will deploy before Roy and the 101<sup>st</sup> boys arrive there.¡±

    ¡°True. But unlikely, Mary is going to give them the run around. You saw those recordings, she has a nasty sense of humour.¡±

    Anna nodded. ¡°You ready for the weird one. The proto-dungeon?¡±

    Meadows gestured helplessly, ¡°There really is one born every minute, isn¡¯t there?¡±

    At the knock on the door Meadows looked up and said, ¡°Enter.¡±

    Meadows acknowledged Art as he opened the door for an army captain and Mr. Finnegan Doolin of Bismark, North Dakota. Fin was a wiry man in his thirties, he somehow gave the impression of having been beaten down by life.

    ¡°Welcome Mr Doolin. I believe you have some things to tell us.¡±

    Fin examined the youthful looking naval officer sitting at the paper strewn desk and the woman in a naval uniform who was sitting at a second desk.

    ¡°Yes, that is if you¡¯re the expert on proto-dungeons like that bitch Blue Lagoon told me.¡±

    Meadows felt a visceral dislike for the man loosing much of the pity he had felt for him. From the way Ana stiffened Meadows was sure she felt the same way. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call myself an expert, but I probably know as much about proto-dungeons as anyone who is not one. At least on Earth.¡±

    ¡°Well, look I know about your guy who threw away the chance to go to Area 21. If I enlist, will you take me there? Look it¡¯s getting hard. The urge to... to root is getting hard to resist.¡±

    Meadows looked at the army captain and raised an eyebrow in enquiry. The man nodded marginally. Meadows looked at the man and rubbed a small silver wrapped marble Mary had given him and invoked it. He used it to inspect Fin.

    ¡°Mr Doolin is telling the truth. He is hanging onto his mobility by the skin of his teeth. This enchanted orb tells me he has somewhere between eighteen and thirty five hours.¡±

    The army captain sighed. ¡°Damn. I¡¯ll have to get him processed and on a plane as soon as possible. I¡¯m sorry captain but there is no time to waste.¡±

    Meadows nodded in understanding and watched the army captain hurry the smiling gullible idiot out of the office.

 Chapter 127

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary figured it was time. If she didn¡¯t act now it would be too late as there would be no more proto-dungeons. So here she was, having fun, swimming in her gorgeous dolphin form off the coast of Australia. On her left was Suttons Beach in Redcliffe; Mary was somewhat puzzled that there wasn¡¯t anyone in the water. Her only irritation was the noisy helicopter overhead.

    It was then that she realized she was being stalked. She leapt from the sea with a touch of magic, seeking altitude to see if she could spot whatever was stupid enough to stalk her.

    In the helicopter overhead Ruth Smith bit her lip as she kept her camera on the pale dolphin. She suspected that the jump it had just executed was record breaking. She maintained her camera going because it was obvious that the great white female her team had just tagged was hunting the lone dolphin.

    What followed was unexpected. The dolphin turned and attacked the larger shark. It was exceptionally fast and manoeuvrable. It swam exceptionally fast and it repeatedly rammed the great white.

    Then after the kill the dolphin rose up on its tail and danced across the waves before giving a spectacular series of acrobatics. It certainly looked like a victory dance for the benefit of the spectators on the beach. Ruth could have sworn it was watching them just before it dove and went after the body of its victim.

    It surfaced and wagged its head even as it held the part of the shark¡¯s fin with their tag. After it was sure they had seen it headed for the beach and somehow threw it into the surf before vanishing under the waves again.

    * * *

    Mary couldn¡¯t help grinning to herself. Especially when she saw people returning to the sea. At least the carcass hadn¡¯t gone to waste. Her serpent had been hungry after all, they always were.

    Mary spent some time playing with the bolder swimmers until the noisy helicopter returned, so she dove again and changed avatars. She made her way to the shore and came ashore.

    Mary grinned up at the chopper that was still circling around looking for her beautiful dolphin self. ¡®Got to thank Bluey again for linkin¡¯ my domain to all the seas. Makes things sooo easy.¡¯

    Mary touched her ring and invoked its cleanse function. Now that she was dry and salt free she hauled out a t-shirt and shorts from her storage ring and pulled them over her dry swimming costume and after answering a few queries regarding her rings, she trotted away from the beach, heading for a certain beach bar. She grinned when she spotted the small sun tanned blue-eyed blond.

    Mary stopped by the table and said, ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Mary, I guess you¡¯re Tammy O¡¯Hare. I¡¯m glad you believed me and agreed to meet.¡±

    ¡°G¡¯day Mary. Bit difficult to disbelieve when your companion contacted me over the Dungeon Exchange blog thingie. You say you can connect me to my other self. I guess I¡¯ll have more information regarding where I should establish my domain that way.¡±

    ¡°That will be one advantage yes. Additionally if you want to remain linked to your other you you¡¯ll know what type of companion will work best. That is if the companion the Blue Haired Cow supplied is acceptable to the two of you.¡±

    ¡°Why did you pick me?¡±

    ¡°Azurea is desperate. She hinted that your dungeon is close to the coast. Real close.¡±

    ¡°And that is important. Why?¡±

    ¡°Because, Tammy, I¡¯m bound to the seas and oceans.¡±

    Tammy sat silently as she thought. She stood, ¡°Lets go sit on the beach. Somewhere with less company.¡±

    Mary stood and followed her. They sat looking at the waves.

    ¡°Go ahead Mother of Monsters. And you¡¯ll owe me a favour. Right.¡±

    Mary let out a bark of laughter. ¡°That¡¯s usually my line. But fair enough.¡±

    ¡°I know. I¡¯ve been lurking for a while.¡±

    Mary took Tammy¡¯s hand and used her experience to locate her link. She found it much easier than before, her goddess abilities made it easy. She found the bound dungeon core easily even as she dragged Tammy with her.

    * * * AMBUILA ¨C ANS 71 * * *

    Moonbright the dungeon sprite watched with heart in mouth. They were out of mana and almost out of defenders. Their lizard men had been caught returning from a hunt in the marsh by the cannibals. He shuddered in sorrow at the sight of the twenty warriors with their cow hide shields and iron tipped throwing spears.

    He had overheard the chief witch doctor crow victory and boast of what he was going to do with his poor bound friend. It had begun as a job for the goddess and it had grown into something more. ANS 71 was sweet and he had grown to love her as a true companion.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    He froze as a presence flooded into their dungeon and domain. He felt what could only be a goddess look through his memories with a growing feeling of approval.

    Then Moonbright felt the intruder look out at the cannibals with disapproval. Their domain was suddenly full of mana and it expanded explosively. The diameter of their domain doubled, tripled and grew further until it connected to the nearby sea.

    And to his shock another domain overlapped theirs from the sea feeding them a certain wild chaotic energy.

    A wave of serpents emerged from the waves, and badger men emerged from the depths of their dungeon armed with strange steel weapons and clad in steel knit shirts. Both sets of monsters swarmed the cannibals.

    ? I figure I can leave things to you now Tammy, and you Moonbright. I gift you with my small sea serpents and the badger ¡¯folk. I¡¯ve a dungeon to claim and link. ?

    Moonbright was astounded at how quickly the badger ¡¯folk won the fight. Greatly aided it must be said by the cannibals¡¯ terror of the snakes. He almost didn¡¯t see the healer and mage at the back of the metal clad badger ¡¯folk.

    Then he forgot everything else because his dungeon core was free and he was meeting Tammy O¡¯Hare.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    It was getting dark when Tammy woke again. She looked at Mary with a dazed look. Mary grinned, ¡°I guess you understand now.¡±

    Tammy opened her mouth, swallowed, ¡°Yeah, I guess I do. Where do I find a sprite?¡±

    ¡°I know a lot of sea sprites, but you want a land based classic dungeon version, speak with Jerica. She¡¯s in charge of that kind of thin¡¯ on Earth.¡± Mary grinned.

    ¡°My, um, twin I guess, thanks you. And Moonbright too. But they say the badger ¡¯folk are hideously expensive. And their gear too, any idea why?¡±

    ¡°Think it has to do with tech levels an¡¯ general conditions. Looked like those dungeon killers were barely into the Iron Age. Suspect much of the planet isn¡¯t that far along. Know there are no sea elves or Drow. Got lots to learn.¡±

    ¡°Oh. That¡¯s going to make things difficult,¡± said Tammy staring into the distance.

    ¡°Hey Tammy, don¡¯t feel down. Were plenty of big cities an¡¯ the like even in the stone age. Just a case that there was a lot more wilderness. Think about it. Research is easy here on Earth.¡±

    ¡°Yeah I guess.¡±

    Mary stood and removed her t-shirt and shorts storing them once again. She looked down with a grin. ¡°You know how to get hold of me. I want to go an¡¯ play some more. It¡¯s been a while since I went Dolphin.¡±

    Tammy watched as Mary raced back to the sea and dove into the waves and a dolphin went dancing out to sea.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C ROY ANDERSON * * *

    Roy watched as the inn¡¯s staff fussed over Cas. Not that he and the rest of the party weren¡¯t being well treated, it¡¯s just that they went the extra mile for Cas. Captain Shultz had been forced to split his men between the Ocidon¡¯s Gift and the Lazy Cat. Neither inn being that big. At least they only stood some two hundred meters apart, and both were on the docks.

    In fact the only establishment that could have held them all was the local bordello. And while most of the men would have been delighted the officers vetoed the idea.

    Having finished breakfast, and being served ale with breakfast was odd, Roy stood outside the door to the inn. He was watching a rundown three masted ship being hurriedly prepared for sea. Several scruffy individuals were carrying a number of obviously drunken people aboard. The ships master seemed to be rather excited.

    ¡°I have always wondered about the Swallow. She used to have some very odd cargoes, and has been struggling lately. Looks like I was correct.¡±

    Roy looked at the speaker and saw that it was their innkeeper. ¡°What makes you say that?¡±

    The man grinned, ¡°Two things happen when Tomcat comes calling. Men lock up their unmarried daughters and rats flee.¡±

    Seeing that Roy hadn¡¯t understood, the innkeeper clarified. ¡°Mother is death on pirates and those that help and support them. And Tomcat is one of her principal agents.¡±

    ¡°Mother? Who is Mother?¡±

    That netted Roy an incredulous look. ¡°How is it you don¡¯t know when Cas wears her symbol, and one blessed by her at that?¡± The innkeeper shook his head, and continued. ¡°Mother, The Mother of Monsters and Blackbeard¡¯s Bane. Occidon¡¯s consort and Balancer of the Drow, mind you that last is a joke. Between the Spider Queen and the Mother of Monsters, hah! Protector of the Were, and currently, a minor goddess.¡±

    Roy stared at the man and licked suddenly dry lips.

    * * *

    Inspection that morning was fun. Angry NCO confounded when all that stuff appeared out of the government issued storage device. Officers dragged in and explanations offered. The airborne boys had been busy after that hint. They were now actually carrying more with less stress than before.

    That got Roy roped in, and after some questioning, Cas as well.

    The tours of the town were delayed by about an hour. Not that there was much to see or learn. Sus was a small unimportant port that lived of trade, farming and fishing. Most of the wealth was found in Barcolton thanks to the dungeons and the East West trade road.

    Though by all indications that road was losing importance with the virtual disappearance of the previously rampant piracy.

    Roy accompanied the padre around to see the various temples and shrines. He was amused that the man was actually physically unable to enter two of them. A fairly impressive ruin showed where the god of pirates had been worshiped. Also the temple to Occidon was being enlarged along with its attached shrine to the consort.

    * * * EARTH ¨C ARENA OF BLOOD * * *

    Frog and Angel watched and liaised with Frog and Strelitzia as a small group of CIA agents attempted to infiltrate Conimbriga. They withdrew hastily when the iron collars, the slave soldiers employed by Conimbriga refused them access. They returned dragging their dead.

    Frog was getting tired of explaining. ¡°Look, I honestly can¡¯t make them talk to you. Yes I can give you the language. But not for all of you, creating items costs energy. Especially magical items.¡±

    ¡°Can we get you energy, we can pay,¡± offered Jerry.

    ¡°The way by which dungeons gain most energy is not acceptable on Earth. That is by killing sapient beings. The other ways, well time slowly allows us to gain energy. Then you and the people currently in my domain are allowing me to gain energy. Sapient beings give off energy dungeons can use just by living. But it¡¯s a small amount. Mind you I¡¯m glad to get it, I don¡¯t want to have to kill anyone.¡±

    Jerry exchanged a look with Damien. ¡°So if we set up a bunkhouse...¡±

    ¡°Well yes, that might help. No it would help though it would be a bit nerve wracking to have too many people in my dungeon. If they were unarmed it would help.¡±

    Angel chirped in, ¡°A gym would be better. Exercise tends to make beings give off more energy. And exercising in a dungeon¡¯s domain would also be beneficial for the people exercising.¡±

 Chapter 128

    * * * AMBUILA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary set about the now usual task of setting up a new domain and home. She migrated her original claim away from the coast. At about ten kilometres from the shore she came across two barren rocky islands. They were devoid of fresh water and looked to be the remains of a long extinct volcano.

    Whilst not happy with her location, mainly because of the paucity of life she found in the local sea. It just seemed unnatural and she worried as to the reason for the lack. Anyway she moved further out to sea and extended her domain ensuring that she included both islands.

    Then when she created her usual guardians in the seas she was surprised at the cost. Especially of fertile creatures, out of curiosity she tried calling up an infertile guardian. It proved to be far, far cheaper than a fertile example.

    Mary retreated to her new temp core and examined all the creatures that were to be found in her domain. Only about twenty percent of them were fertile.

    Mary pondered. ¡®What are the new idiots up to here? This seems to be an ecological disaster in full swing. How the beep can I save the seas. An¡¯ what the beep are the local sea gods up to?¡¯

    With a few more muttered complaints she set to work shaping the two small isles into one larger island with a good sheltered harbour and two fresh water springs. Next Mary shaped a small walled town and assorted vegetation to the isle.

    ¡®I¡¯ll have to put out a call for volunteers. Tryin¡¯ to create locals is gonna be idiotically expensive. Kay, just one more thin¡¯ to do now.¡¯

    After checking out the local Dungeon Exchange Mary moved herself into the local god¡¯s realm and looked around in surprise. At first sight, the place looked empty. Then she located a frail looking god, or at least she assumed it was a god.

    ? Hi, who are you and what is going on? Which idiot deity got the daft idea of the infertility? ?

    The bent, elderly looking godlet peered up at Mary incredulous. He shuffled backward.

    ? I am Sakapata, god of smallpox and madness. Now who are you pale one? You stink of water and salt. ?

    ? Charmed! How nice ta meetcha. Yeah the sea¡¯s my thing. Now what is goin¡¯ on with this world? ?

    Sakapata shuffled back another step and then attempted to straighten himself. He sneered ¨C rather unsuccessfully ¨C and wilted when Mary didn¡¯t react.

    ? The great Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa came to us from the Great Gods... ?

    ? Those twits! How could anyone be so stupid as to do anything they suggest? ?

    Sakapata started and began to tremble. Then he drew himself up again.

    ? The great Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa came to us from the south with the word of the Great Gods. And he showed us the evils of overpopulation. So he rallied those of us that listened to his holy message, and we all lay a blessing of infertility upon the world. ?

    ? So now, thanks to your curse, the world is dying. And you lot are weakened by the lack of followers. Lovely! Idiots! What of those of the gods that did not listen? ?

    Sakapata puffed up his chest with pride. ? The great Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa called on his kin. Then they led us in a war against the deniers. We killed them. ?

    ? Beep! I take it the gods of fertility and agriculture were amongst those killed. ?

    ? Yes. After all they led the rebellion. ?

    Mary exited the god¡¯s realm in disgust and returned to a more clement world to make plans.

    * * * AMBUILA ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Blue Lagoon: This place looks dead. Hey, anybody out there?

    Stillwater: Oh, you¡¯re new. I¡¯m Katie. Welcome to dullsville.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    Blackrock: Yeah dullsville¡¯s right. Not many people around here. And I¡¯m Fin.

    Unamed (Tammy O¡¯Hare): Hi, I just woke up. Thanks again Mother of Monsters.

    Blue Lagoon: You¡¯re welcome Tammy. Call if you need help, I¡¯m just offshore of you.

    Unamed (Tammy O¡¯Hare): What is going on round here. The only humans I ever saw were a bunch that filed their teeth and wanted my core. At least my companion Moonbright tells me they¡¯re the first.

    Blackrock: Two new dungeons that are willing to talk. Hey welcome. God it¡¯s boring around here.

    Ulruk¡¯s Gift (cmp): The locals have been cursed with infertility. They are dying out. And so will we if we do not somehow become self sufficient.

    Blue Lagoon: Thanks for the warnin¡¯. I had figured that out, but it is good to have confirmation.

    Stillwater: You¡¯re a Godlike! How?

    Unamed (Tammy O¡¯Hare): Mother of Monsters isn¡¯t a local. She has dungeons on at least two other worlds.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C ROY ANDERSON * * *

    Roy was mooching around on the docks when the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory arrived. She was a black coloured rakish looking brig with a fore and aft rig. After she docked she discharged a surprising number of passengers.

    Roy asked one of the stevedores he had befriended, ¡°I haven¡¯t seen any ship discharge so many passengers before. Is that normal?¡±

    ¡°Tomcat specialises on small high value items, and that led to a lot of demand from potential passengers.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    Gaardan looked at him incredulously. ¡°Fast ship, high value cargoes. That means she¡¯s well armed and has guards aboard. Only natural rich guys want to ride along.¡±

    Roy watched for a bit longer before making his way to the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory. Tomcat proved to be a cat beastfolk. He readily confirmed that he was here to pick them up. Then he excused himself, explaining that he had to visit the temple. He left the ship with a young woman who was carrying a cat eared baby on her back in some kind of basic cloth cradle.

    Roy made his way back to the inn to tell the captain that their ride had arrived and that Tomcat planned to sail with the tide on the following day.

    * * *

    ¡®With the tide¡¯ turned out to mean one hour after dawn. So after a very early morning they repaired aboard the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory. It turned out the woman was Clarrina, Tomcat¡¯s wife. Her baby, Tommy, was an instant hit with Helli and Cas.

    Clarrina looked very like Helli, in fact, they looked like sisters.

    They weren¡¯t the only passengers but they all got cabins, though most of them had to double up.

    Tomcat had explained that it would be a three-day journey to Lafunda, where they would lay over for a day. Then they would have a two or three day trip to Varina¡¯s Beach for another overnight stay. Then they would set course for Maalea Two. Another three-day journey.

    The weather was clement and they made good time. The Alessandrina¡¯s Glory held several surprises for them. The hull and masts were not made of wood but of some kind of artificial material. And she was electrified. Tomcat ran a generator to recharge a series of batteries daily. And she relied on a sophisticated GPS for navigation.

    Lafunda turned out to be located at the head of the delta of a large river, very like the Mississippi and its delta. The river was not as big but it came close. Lafunda however was nothing like New Orleans past or present, being a mid sized walled city surrounded by small forts.

    Most of the passengers left the ship once they docked. Tomcat and his wife headed off to the local temple. This time Cas, the Padre, and two guards accompanied them. The feds went off exploring and the rest of the escort did likewise in groups of two and three. Well a mix of liberty and exploration.

    Roy went with Gunny. They visited the local market and some of the local shops. Roy picked up two jewelled bracelets.

    ¡°How come you have all that cash?¡± asked Gunny.

    ¡°This is my second visit, so I bought a supply of cash before I came this time.¡±

    Gunny looked at him speculatively. ¡°Where can one buy Parthian local currency on Earth?¡±

    ¡°Blue Lagoon sells it. In fact if you check your coins you¡¯ll see Blue Lagoon minted it. MagiTech acts as Blue Lagoon¡¯s agent,¡± explained Roy.

    ¡°What exactly is Blue Lagoon?¡±

    Roy slowed as he thought, ¡°Good question. I¡¯m not sure. I used to think it was just a ¨C a super powered dungeon. A weird dungeon. And that Ms Silvestre was somehow linked to it. Now I¡¯m not sure. The locals seem to believe Ms Silvestre to be a minor goddess.¡±

    ¡°What, like the ancient Egyptians thought their Pharaoh was a god?¡± inquired Gunny.

    Roy rubbed his chin, ¡°Possibly... But I suspect ¨C something more. Tell me Gunny, did you get a look at that GPS repeater?¡±

    Gunny suddenly looked more serious. ¡°Yes, it looks cutting edge.¡±

    By the time the two men got back to the ship Gunny had picked up an enchanted fighting knife and they were friends.

    * * *

    The following day they picked up some eight new passengers, one, a cat beastfolk that seemed to be of the same breed as Tomcat had a small mob of important, or at least prosperous looking people seeing him off.

    The first passenger to board was another beastfolk. He somehow reminded Roy of an otter. He paid his passage and went directly to Tomcat. Roy was close enough to overhear their conversation.

    ¡°Excuse me captain, can my friend fetch a pair of cages aboard. We were hoping to persuade your lady to aid us and give a chance at the boon so many others have benefitted from.¡±

    Tomcat looked at the man with understanding. ¡°You have a breeding pair of otters then. Certainly, they are small creatures. Do you want to keep them in your cabin or in the hold?¡±

    ¡°Well yes. And also of weasels. For my friend. Well we are fetching two pairs of each, just in case. Much as we¡¯d like it I suspect that your cabins are too small for the two of us and the two cages,¡± offered the embarrassed looking otter man.

    ¡°True. I¡¯ll arrange it so you have a spot in the hold and access so you may look after your charges,¡± confirmed Tomcat.

 Chapter 129

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C ROY ANDERSON * * *

    Roy and Gunny were leaning on the ship¡¯s rail by the bow as they slid down the river. He looked down in surprise as what looked like a gunport opened.

    ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t look directly at the beam you idiot. I thought you came from Earth,¡± said the cargo master from behind. Roy looked back at the small man.

    ¡°The bandits have a ballista in those bushes, the ones with the wilted pink flowers.¡±

    Roy looked back just in time to see a hole punched through the indicated bush by what looked like a powerful laser beam. Beside him Gunny cursed, and cursed again as the ship¡¯s marines appeared to line the rail carrying HK G3s. On the bank a band of ragged individuals could be seen running. That didn¡¯t stop the crew from trying to kill them.

    * * *

    As they left the delta and headed out into the ocean, Gunny said, ¡°Hey Roy, any idea why they are using the older version assault rifles, they seem to have access to newer gear.¡±

    Both men jumped and whirled around when a girl¡¯s voice replied in a broad New Orleans accent, ¡°The marines say the new gun¡¯s pussy rounds can¡¯t put down the higher level threats.¡±

    Mrald grinned at them showing her multitude of needle sharp teeth. ¡°I speak good, no?¡±

    ¡°Um, yes. So where did you learn English?¡± asked Roy.

    ¡°In Louisiana,¡± Mrald leaned her head to one side enquiringly. ¡°Frog gave me a skill crystal.¡±

    ¡°You mean you¡¯re from the US,¡± asked Gunny. ¡°How did you get here and why are you with that cat man?¡±

    ¡°Na, ¡¯m from Conimbriga on Tarifax. They chucked us into Frog¡¯s dungeon, and he sent us to Earth rather than do the nobs the favour of killing us.¡±

    ¡°Kill you? But you¡¯re a kid,¡± exclaimed Roy.

    ¡°¡¯Bout eleven in human reckoning. Was an orphan. Not worth anything so expendable. Papa ¡¯dopted me.¡±

    ¡°Anyone else speak English?¡± asked Gunny.

    ¡°Yeah. All the techies at least,¡± replied the goblin girl with a grin.

    The leopard beastfolk kid wandered over. ¡°Hey Mrald, stop bothering them,¡± he said in the local tradetalk.

    ¡°I¡¯m not bothering them Han. I¡¯m not, am I?¡± she asked Roy and Gunny, still in English.

    Roy and Gunny shared a look and shook their heads. Then Roy looked at the leopard boy suspiciously. ¡°You understand English, don¡¯t you?¡±

    Han grinned showing his fangs. ¡°Yes I do, can¡¯t have big sis speaking a language I can¡¯t,¡± Han replied, his English had a Hawaiian accent. ¡°Oh and you got ripped off Gunny, the enchantment on that knife is very shoddy.¡±

    Gunny fingered his knife, ¡°And I suppose you can do better?¡±

    ¡°Maybe, I¡¯m not sure, but papa can without trying,¡± stated Han before grabbing Mrald¡¯s hand and dragging her off.

    * * *

    Varina¡¯s Beach reminded Roy of one of those Hollywood gold rush towns. Lots of new construction, mostly featuring wood from the surrounding forests. The place was full of low level adventurers due to the local dungeon.

    From what he overheard the dungeon was about one year old, but it had changed a month or so ago, and now it was giving the delvers lots of surprises. The new monsters were strange and unique, such as the turtle men who had the strange habit of wearing a cloth band type mask. Additionally the treasures were much improved. Explaining the rush.

    He followed the other soldiers, specialists and agents into the old tavern. The taproom was a bit smoky and smelled faintly of fish. Roy suspected that this had been the fishermen¡¯s tavern before the village had grown into a small town.

    They pushed a couple of tables together and dragged over another bench. They ordered several flagons of ale for their table and served themselves.

    Captain Shultz looked around the table. ¡°I¡¯m fairly certain we won¡¯t be overheard here. So is there anything any one wants to say or report?¡±

    ¡°Several of the crew speak English, as does that cat guy and his kids,¡± offered Gunny.

    Roy nodded and added. ¡°The goblin girl, Mrald, mentioned she came originally from Tarifax ¨C another world apparently. Oh, and she got here via Louisiana with the help of someone or something named Frog.¡±

    ¡°Captain, did you note how the ship¡¯s marines all produced weapons from storage devices. And the laser beam...¡± offered Gunny.

    After a short silence, the padre rather hesitantly said, ¡°Tomcat is a senior priest. He represents Ocidon¡¯s consort. I overheard him referred to as a Bishop. He presided at a well attended ceremony in the consort¡¯s shrine in the temple of Ocidon.¡±This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    Cass nodded, ¡°Also, the local temple of Ocidon is being renovated and expanded. I understand Ocidon and his consort are gaining adherents hand over fist ever since his followers destroyed the temple and shrines of Vortexius Blackbeard. The local merchants and seafarers appear to be all in favour, they claim Vortexius is the god of cutthroats, pirates, bandits and thieves.¡±

    ¡°Humph, superstitious claptrap,¡± snorted Markowitz. ¡°However, it must be said that someone understands propaganda, and we must tread warily. This is a rich world with lots of potential, we don¡¯t want to lose access.¡±

    ¡°Many rulers of countries in Earth¡¯s history have been considered gods. So there is nothing unusual here. As much as it irks us, Ms Silvestre seems to control access to Parthia and Fragatta, so like Mr Markowitz says, we have to tread warily,¡± said Shultz.

    ¡°Be careful with your assumptions,¡± warned the padre. ¡°Don¡¯t forget I have been unable to enter some of the temples and shrines. This suggests the local gods are real enough and far more active than our Lord.¡±

    Captain Shultz nodded thoughtfully. ¡°Good point padre. But I can¡¯t accept that a girl that was born and bred in the US, and lives with her mother can be a goddess. I suspect that she is favoured by this Ocidon, which is troubling enough.¡±

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary sat in the comfortable armchair in the lounge of the house she had gifted her mother with. She grinned as listened to the phone she was holding. With a wide grin she set it to speakerphone mode and winked at her mother and Flip. She listened to the assorted clicks and chuckled.

    ? Hey Mycroft, can you kick in their best encoding and add a little bit extra so this call is private? ?

    ? Yes Mother. ? Agreed Mycroft somehow managing to sound hard done by.

    ¡°Hello, is this Ms Silvestre?¡± asked a familiar voice.

    ¡°Yes Mr President. What can I do for you this fine morning?¡±

    ¡°My people tell me you are not being particularly attentive to our attempts to communicate.¡±

    ¡°Why Mr President, I am more than willin¡¯ to talk. But like you I seem to find the deep state full of enemies. I have reams of data regarding their intrigues against you for instance. Me I¡¯m having it easy compared with yourself. Use the Navy or the Coast Guard to communicate with me. After that bullet in the shoulder I want nothing to do with Homeland, and the various alphabet agencies haven¡¯t endeared themselves to me either.

    ¡°Tell you what, I¡¯ll put everything I have on the peeps plottin¡¯ ¡¯gainst you on your private server. Um, maybe not as that would be illegal, where do you want the data?¡±

    A little later Mary ended the call with a broad grin, which turned into peals of laughter at the look on the faces of her mother and brother.

    ? Mycroft... ?

    ? Already done Mother. You do know what you¡¯ve done. The data is ironclad... ?

    ? Yes. A confusion to my enemies. Get ready to dump the rest of the dirt into the appropriate so called news agencies. I¡¯ll leave it to your and Moriarty¡¯s discretion as to when. ?

    Flip was fiddling with his smartphone, ¡°Damn it sis. Now I absolutely have to check out twitter.¡±

    Mary laughed again.

    Flip glared at her then his eyes opened wide. ¡°Oh my god, Mycroft dumped the files into the President and the AG¡¯s computers. The SS are going to have kittens...¡±

    ? Yes Flip, what did you want, ? asked Mary with a straight face, before laughing yet again.

    * * * EARTH & PARTHIA ¨C MEADOWS * * *

    Captain Meadows put down the phone¡¯s handset, carefully, as if it was made of gelignite. He looked up at lieutenant commander Partlow. ¡°Anna, that was the President. Apparently the navy is in charge of liaising with the Tyrant of the Isles. He said she seemed like a sensible person. Very helpful...¡±

    Anna met his gaze, ¡°Mary... Helpful?¡±

    ¡°Yes... And we have the go ahead. We are cleared to move to Parthia ASAP.¡± Meadows sounded stunned.

    * * *

    With authority from on high Meadows¡¯ expanded detail moved through several portals and made their way to Maalea Two. They were met and welcomed by the dungeon¡¯s Voice.

    Alessandrina was just as Meadows remembered her, though this time she was flanked by two huge savannah cats, and by several other priests and guards. She led them to a large mansion or small palace set in the middle of a mid sized garden. The garden was surrounded by a one-meter high wall.

    ¡°It¡¯s all yours. Several of the other mansions along here will be handed over to other nations for their use. You can upgrade the wall and install defences ¨C within reason naturally.¡±

    Meadows and several of his detail watched as Drina headed off. Then they turned and went to explore their new home ¨C embassy.

    * * *

    The following day Meadows returned from a meeting with Mary. He cornered Anna, ¡°I spoke to Mary; she seemed amused about something. When I asked about the President, she laughed, and told me she gave him a bomb for use against the alphabet agencies and some of his opponents in Congress.¡±

    Anna sighed, ¡°She is finally cutting loose, isn¡¯t she.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid so,¡± agreed Meadows.

    Anna smiled sympathetically. ¡°Well, I have another potential headache for you. There is a Mr Vincent Jacobson waiting to see you. He¡¯s a Canadian but as we are the first diplomatic presence on Parthia he¡¯s come to us.¡±

    Meadows gestured helplessly and headed for the office he had claimed as his. ¡°Well send him along Anna, do you think you should be present?¡±

    ¡°I see no reason for that. I¡¯ll send him along.¡±

    * * *

    Meadows had barely settled himself behind his desk when there was a knock on the door, he looked up as a tubby middle-aged man was shown in.

    ¡°Good afternoon Mr Jacobson. I¡¯m captain Meadows. What can we do for you?¡±

    ¡°Thank you for seeing me captain, especially as I am a Canadian. I wonder if you could help me. While I am extremely grateful to the Mother of Monsters for rescuing me and the twins, I wonder if I am in trouble on Earth.¡±

    ¡°Rescue?¡±

    ¡°Yes. We were on holiday in Kenya when we were captured by Somali pirates, or terrorists as the case might be. There seems to be very little difference. I expected we would be held for years, but I hadn¡¯t counted on my twins having apparently converted to the worship of The Mother of Monsters. She slaughtered those pirates and fetched us away. I, I also wonder what happened to the other hostages the pirates were holding.¡±

    Meadows felt as his world was shifting. He had heard of the rescue and slaughter from the news. The mercenaries who had been hired to fetch away the hostages had not been shy in telling their story to all and sundry. So it wasn¡¯t the Russians.

    ¡°Your children, they are David and Rebecca, correct?¡±

    ¡°David and Becky. Yes.¡±

    Meadows looked at the man for a moment before reassuring him. ¡°Well, the other hostages were collected by some mercenaries hired for the occasion and taken to safety. They are all safe, and they asked about you. Where are you staying sir?¡±

    ¡°We have been given a small house in Silverton. The twins are having a great time in the kids dungeon, and swimming in the lagoon. Can you let my government know we are safe?¡±

    ¡°Certainly. But haven¡¯t you got phones, then you could contact your family and friends yourself.¡± Asked Meadows.

    ¡°Phones? But we are on another world,¡± objected Vincent.

    ¡°Mary, Ms Silvestre has that sorted. Any mobile will work to speak from Maleea Two. Sat phones work anywhere on the planet.¡±

 Chapter 130

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C TOD * * *

    Vaar¡¯s Beach proved to be a sprawling village protected by a timber palisade. From the deck of the Queenie Tod was able to study the place thanks to his binoculars. The village was built up against a creek and sprawled along the beach. There were several small fishing boats plying the calm water behind the rocky reefs.

    He watched as one, bolder than the others, worked its way through the rocks and rowed up to the Queenie. Tod watched as several baskets of fresh fish were passed aboard in exchange for a silver coin and a handful of copper. From look on the faces of the fishermen, they were more than happy with the exchange.

    The only fly in the ointment he could see were the racks, where the villagers were drying and preserving their catch. Tod gave good odds that when the wind was in the wrong quarter, it would stink to high heaven.

    Tod dropped his binoculars to his chest and turned to Captain Gail Stormchaser. ¡°Much better. I suspect they will welcome a dungeon. At least at first.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m certain they will,¡± she agreed.

    ¡°So can you show me this cove you mentioned?¡± asked Tod.

    Twenty minutes later the Queenie''s anchors hit the water. They were still on the seaward side of a rocky reef. On the other side of the reef lay a shallow sandy cove surrounded by low cliffs. Tod studied the cove through his binoculars for a long time.

    ¡°Yes this will do Gail. How are we going to get the stuff to the beach?¡± he asked.

    Gail laughed. ¡°Why, we¡¯ll swim! We have several sea humans and a sea elf. That and storage devices, what could be easier.¡±

    Tod slapped his head in exasperation; then stripped down to his swimming trunks while Gail barked orders. Tod joined several of the crew in diving into the sea. They made their way through the rocky reefs and through the cove. Tod dove and examined the sandy bottom as he went. He was the last to emerge from the waters and walk across the beach.

    Then they explored all three of the small caves Tod had spotted from the Queenie. He finally settled for the one at the top of the dry sandy beach, at the head of the cove. It was the only one that wasn¡¯t tidal. Tod made his way to the back of the cave and seated himself on a camp chair that he produced from his storage ring. He looked up at his two new friends. ¡°Well, I guess this is it.¡±

    Mason exchanged a look with Rita and they grinned. ¡°Do you want us to wait outside? And do you want us to allow that eager scamp Silverfin into your cave?¡±

    Tod looked at Mason with surprise. ¡°Silverfin? Is she here?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± confirmed Mason. ¡°She is still determined to be a dungeon companion. Especially when you bought the were-seal template from Mother.¡±

    ¡°Sea leopard, not seal. They are different animals. Sea lions too. Though I¡¯m not sure why Mary decided to throw those in as a bonus. Fine let her enter after I¡¯ve changed.¡± Tod chuckled, ¡°I still have to see if I can claim the beach outside this cave.¡±

    ¡°There should be no problem,¡± affirmed Rita. ¡°Several dungeons own a patch of ground outside their dungeons proper.¡±

    ¡°Probably because Mother knows something about your sea leopards you failed to recognise,¡± explained Mason.

    ¡°Thanks again you two, for offering to act as guards until I¡¯ve established my defences.¡±

    ¡°Ah Bah!¡± said Rita as she and Mason left the cave.

    Tod watched them go, and then he got up from the chair and sat on the sand of the cave. He placed the two storage gems by his feet and released the hold he had been consciously maintaining on his humanity.

    * * * EARTH ¨C ARENA OF BLOOD * * *

    Frog and Angel liaised with Frog and Strelitzia and with Lewis Carroll and Alice. As a small favour Lewis created a long tunnel that came up half a kilometre outside the walls on Conimbriga. The other end ended just outside Frog¡¯s domain. Then Lewis relinquished control of the near kilometre long tunnel.Stolen story; please report.

    Frog expanded his domain slightly, worrying the Conimbrigan authorities; and linked a tunnel of his own to the tunnel in question.

    Then Frog and Angel offered the US authorities; who were camped around his dungeon in ever increasing numbers, access to this new exit, explaining in vague terms how it came to be. He didn¡¯t mention Lewis Carroll. He just hinted at being helped by a local dungeon. Said help given in the hopes of help in casting off the shackles of slavery.

    * * *

    The following days were interesting. The adventurers from Tarifax returned, the Houma city authorities had hired them, or rather hired most of them. The werewolf seemed to have a different paymaster. Her reported links to Blue Lagoon had attracted attention from a different branch of the government.

    From what he was overhearing the local and national agencies were trying to buy the farm where the tunnel opened out. Frog and Angel found the grumbling at having to use gold amusing, especially given how the value of gold was so artificially inflated on Earth.

    ? You know Angel, I wonder if the US authorities realize what the dungeons ability to create gold is going to do to the world¡¯s gold market? ?

    ¡°What? Why?¡± asked Angel. ¡°It¡¯s just metal. Rather heavy, so it costs more mana than other more useful ones.¡±

    * * * THE GARDENS OF PARADISE * * *

    Foozharn Longlegs the majordomo of Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz¡¯s palace tossed another honey coated fried cockroach into his beak and crunched it thoughtfully. He sighed in contentment and tossed down a measure of southern firewater. He burped up a small-misshaped fire ring.

    Rather reluctantly he reached for one of the documents that was piled up in his never empty in box. He read it swiftly. He scrawled ¡®No¡¯ at the bottom of the last page and tossed it into his out box for one of the many undersecretaries infesting the palace to deal with.

    The in pile was significantly decreased when he was surprised by a very short four-page missive. He scanned it and his eyes bugged out in shock and surprise- In consequence, he coughed out a jet of fire.

    Shocked, he looked at the scrap of burnt paper he was holding. ¡®Oh I say, probably for the best. Got to send a letter to this na?ve youngster with some honest advice. The girl simply can¡¯t treat the Greater Gods like this. I really wouldn¡¯t want the poor thing hurt out of ignorance. Oh Gods above, I pity whomever has to relay a reply of this nature to lord Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz.¡¯

    * * *

    As was the custom, Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz was lounging in his public office receiving his secretaries and undersecretaries.

    ¡°... and in a very polite missive the new minor goddess Mary, Mother of Monsters and Blackbeard¡¯s Bane begged leave to delay her appearance before your magnificence due to having many important duties to conclude.¡±

    Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz waved a languid hand. ¡°Very well, I¡¯ll give her a month. Please advise her as to her scheduled appointment.¡±

    ¡°Certainly my lord. It shall be done.¡± And with that the undersecretary bowed himself out as another of his colleagues took his place.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary looked over her much diminished recruits. The only good thing is that they were truly desperate, and though weakened they came from a world with a huge population which gave them several crumbs. Bes, for instance had benefited from staring in a couple of popular fantasy books. Though Mary thought they had probably twisted him slightly.

    So she had four gods willing to risk all by helping her in Ambuila. Bes was a protector of households and mothers, children and childbirth. And the beep dwarf liked to fight. Achuhucanac came from Tenerife and was a rain god.

    Then she had Ratumaibulu from mama¡¯s Fiji, he was a snake god and he presided over agriculture. Finally she had Shulmanu, a god of the underworld, fertility, and war from Mesopotamia.

    Now she had to take them to Parthia so her followers could welcome them as part of her pantheon before teaching those imbeciles on Ambuila a lesson. They might even be useful on Fragatta now it was just starting to turn green.

    * * *

    ? Gods of information! How in hell did anyone get through these defences... God help me! I have to fix this program, and I don¡¯t know how it is broke. ?

    Mary sat bolt upright and her eyes opened wide in surprise. She glanced around, yes she was still in a remote, all but forgotten and little used corner of the Earth¡¯s Gods Realm.

    And yet that heartfelt prayer... But she didn¡¯t know... but she knew whom to ask...

    ? Mycroft... Can you be an Angel? My Angel. I have a worshiper asking for help and I need a messenger... ?

    * * * EARTH ¨C IN THE NEWS * * *

    From the CNN news desk:

    ¡°The Russians continue to deny involvement in the barbarous slaughter of the Somali Pirates. As you may remember, our news team was shown around the scene of the massacre. There was ample evidence of the barbarous murder of surrendered fighters.

    ¡°The leader of the contractors who rescued the hostages clearly stated that their paymaster had a Russian accent. As did the master of the boat they were loaned for the mission.

    ¡°Despite all the evidence, the spokesperson of the Russian Federation continues to deny involvement.¡±

    ¡°In other news, The President...¡±

    * * *

    ¡°We are here to record the protests against the X rated Game Show that is being produced by the entity known as ¡®Bet Your Life¡¯. The show stars the nymphs Chlo? and Mellissa and the satyr Cassanova.¡±

    * * *

    The TV showed a number of National Guard soldiers and vehicles in a rural setting. By the vegetation the location was somewhere in the south.

    ¡°And here we have what we have been informed is the location of the latest dungeon to be found in the US. We are some miles to the south of Houma in Louisiana. The...¡±

    The viewers then saw a sergeant approach. ¡°Please move on, you are blocking the road.¡±

    ¡°Is it true that this is the location of the dungeon known as Arena of Blood?¡±

    ¡°No comment,¡± the sergeant seemed to love saying that. ¡°Now move on.¡±

 Chapter 131

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C CORPORAL ROY ANDERSON * * *

    After the meeting the American contingent split up into smaller groups and went exploring. Gathering information. Roy once more accompanied Gunny.

    They were passing a new blacksmith¡¯s forge when Gunny spotted an incongruity. He grabbed Roy¡¯s arm and said, ¡°Look, isn¡¯t that a computer Roy?¡±

    Roy turned and looked where Gunny was indicating. ¡°You¡¯re right Gunny. That does look like the wreck of a desktop unit.¡±

    After examining the battered desktop unit, it almost looked like someone had taken an axe to it, so as to get at its insides. The two men ventured into the noisy workshop.

    The smith noticed the two potential new customers and looked up from the horseshoe he was forging. ¡°Welcome sirs, anything you be wanting.¡±

    ¡°Good afternoon, we were just curious about that peculiar object,¡± offered Roy.

    ¡°Oh that. That was a big disappointment. Some adventurers found it in the end room of our dungeon. Nobody has any idea what it is. When I opened it up I found no usable metal, it mostly contains some brittle green stuff.¡±

    ¡°It was found in the dungeon you say. I can think of a friend who collects junk from dungeons.¡± Roy walked round it and peered inside. ¡°Would you sell it for a guilder?¡±

    A bout of spirited bargaining later saw Roy part with two guilders and place the damaged unit in his storage device.

    * * *

    Some time later the two meandered into the local Adventurer¡¯s Guild building. The front room appeared to consist of the majority of the building and reminded them of a peculiar mix of a post office and bar. To their right there were a number of positions where people could be attended. Along the back wall there were some post boards with pinned notices. On the left there stood a long polished bar with a grill at one end. The room itself was liberally filled with mismatched tables and stools.

    They emerged an hour later as novice adventurers, and both of them were two guilders poorer.

    When they came in sight of the port they found that there was a new ship tied up next to theirs. It looked very similar to the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory. The newcomer, the Ocean Pride was discharging passengers. The group that caught their attention consisted of two huge Tiger ¡¯folk, one meerkat ¡¯folk and three humans.

    They made their way through the crowd and stopped when they heard.

    ¡°... and then Donatello grabbed his bo, his staff, and swung at the thief who was trying to make off with his latest invention. The thief went flying and slammed into Raphael, knocking him onto his ass ...¡±

    Gunny and Roy looked to where the vaguely familiar voice was coming from and found Lou, the team¡¯s sniper sketching madly while telling a mixed audience of mostly kids the tale. Gunny and Roy shared an incredulous look and kept walking.

    * * * SIN TCHAI THE MESSENGER * * *

    Sin Tchai was feeling disgruntled, and a little apprehensive. Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz¡¯s majordomo Foozharn Longlegs had summoned him. Despite wanting to drag his feet, Sin Tchai only delayed long enough to hide the letter that that goddess¡¯ court had prevented her sending. It was both too delicious and too dangerous to be found with. And Foozharn was reputed to have a beak for trouble.

    The way he was passed through the numerous middlemen with hardly a pause further unsettled Sin Tchai. He found himself kowtowing to the mighty Foozharn within half an hour of presenting himself at the palace.

    ¡°Pay attention to me boy! I¡¯m not just talking to hear my head roar,¡± said Foozharn. ¡°You know this girl, right? Now the great one Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz wishes to instruct her. You will take this missive from our god to her. But first hand her this letter from me, the girl needs warning as to how things are.¡±

    Sin Tchai sweated apprehensively and knocked his head three times on the floor in acknowledgement of these instructions.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Foozharn Longlegs looked at the cowering messenger. Irritated, he snapped, ¡°Go, I say, go away, boy, and don¡¯t forget the messages.¡±

    Sin Tchai backed up, snatched the two fancy well-stuffed envelopes with their multitude of ribbons and seals and fled. He only slowed after he had left the Gardens of Paradise. Hovering in the realm between he placed the messages in his courier pouch. He used his magics to clean up and make himself presentable.

    Sin Tchai found the goddesses¡¯ throne room empty. His senses told him she wasn¡¯t on this world. Surprised he rechecked before resorting to the seeker-compass. He shook it worriedly as the needle kept swing between two points. And even more worryingly two worlds, in different universes.

    Slowly the needle settled on the closest location and Sin Tchai resumed his messenger lope, speeding to meet his messages destination.

    He found her presiding over a mortal court. In a dungeon. He flashed into existence and noted with interest that her followers regarded him with indifference, where those he assumed were visitors and petitioners showed the customary reverence to a messenger of the Greater Gods.

    She made him wait, insisting he join the line of those with petitions and other business. Sin Tchai could feel her power, seeing as she was in the heart of her power. Sin Tchai suppressed his grin as those in front of him expedited their business.

    Finally he handed his messages to the girl child who he just knew was her supreme priestess. ¡°The great Foozharn Longlegs, majordomo of The Great God of the lower mid tier; Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz the King of Rodents, overseer of the Gods of the lower tier and their Gardens, asks that you, Mary Mother of Monsters, first read his missive.¡±

    The goddess¡¯ cold look chilled Sin Tchai, causing him to bow low. When he straightened the goddess had already tossed two sheets of embossed paper onto the floor. She hummed disdainfully when she came to the meat of the matter.

    Sin Tchai shivered again as she opened the summons and then casually discarded it on the floor after flicking through the pages.

    ¡°Gracie, attend me. Be ready to write.¡± The goddess waited until a nervous looking dog woman approached and sat herself at a portable desk. ¡°Right, lessee. ¡®To the honourable Foozharn Longlegs, thanks for your warnin¡¯ an¡¯ advice. Rest assured I have no intention of settin¡¯ foot in the Gardens.¡¯ Then sign it off in the usual fashion.¡±

    Sin Tchai watched with bated breath as Gracie put the blunt message to one side before gathering a ream of good paper and writing a long letter containing her goddess¡¯ message. When Gracie had finished, Mary signed it and returned it. Gracie placed it in an envelope and passed it to Sin Tchai who was unable to resist smirking.

    ¡°Now for rodent breath,¡± said Mary. She looked up as Sin Tchai choked. After a cold-eyed look she smiled maliciously. ¡°Right. ¡®To the Great God of the lower mid tier; Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz the King of Rodents, overseer of the Gods of the lower tier and their Gardens. Many thanks for your kind invitation. I must respectfully decline as I have no intention of settin¡¯ foot in the Gardens of Paradise. If you really want to see me, come find me in the lower realms.¡¯ Then sign off as usual. An¡¯ don¡¯t pad it out too much Gracie.¡±

    Sin Tchai reluctantly accepted the letters. His mind was racing as he plotted ways to get someone else to have the ¡®honour¡¯ of delivering these incendiary letters to Foozharn. Old birdbeak might be a pompous windbag, but he was rumoured to be reasonable enough when not in a temper.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C TOD * * *

    ? ... ?

    ? Congratulations on becoming a new dungeon ¨C in Parthia! ?

    ? you may now choose one starting monster type ¨C do you wish to hear the list ¨C yes/no ?

    ? No ¨C thanks Bluey. May I choose ¨C Dinosaurs ?

    ? ... Too diverse... Lesser Dinosaurs would be acceptable. ?

    ? Good. I choose Lesser Dinosaurs. ?

    ? Done ¨C Be aware that you will be restricted by your choice until you accumulate sufficient mana and experience to obtain further advances ¨C Dinosaurs and Greater Dinosaurs. ?

    Tod struggled to assimilate a flood of information, and he felt a slight shift in the core of his being as some of his core beliefs and attitudes shifted slightly under this flood of information.

    When he surfaced he instinctively claimed the cave he found himself in. And the first person he sensed was a noticeably excited Silverfin. The little sea sprite was virtually vibrating in place as she waited.

    ? Hello Silverfin. Are you sure of this? I mean Jerica always seemed to be in the background somehow. ?

    ¡°Yes! But Jerica and Trisha have the luck to be linked to Mother, to Blue Lagoon. They have far more to do than most companions. And they are very respected amongst companions. Please will you take me as your companion? ?

    Tod contemplated the little sprite and for the first time was able to truly see her. Somehow as a dungeon core he had a different way of seeing a potential companion. He somehow felt they would match. Silverfin was older and therefore, more mature than Jerica. But just as eager.

    ? Very well. Be my companion Silverfin. ?

    ¡°Yes!¡± shouted Silverfin with a jump of joy.

    * * *

    Some time later Tod tapped one of his mana crystals and expanded his domain to include the other cave and beach outside his caves. He paused when he reached the wet sand before expanding his domain to include a sliver of the cove.

    Then he learnt why Mary had given him the sea lion template. His first guardian, the were-sea leopard was a loner. He now knew it wouldn¡¯t tolerate another of its species in its territory, except during the mating season. That, and the fact that it found his location intolerably warm. Sighing mentally he fished out the air con ring Mary had called a ¡®walrus ring¡¯ and after absorbing its pattern, passed it on to his new guardian.

 Chapter 132

    * * * GARDENS OF PARADISE * * *

    Sin Tchai delayed his return, quite deliberately. He travelled slowly and made sure to detour to take in the sights. He followed his seeker-compass, curious as to the double reading, and he was nearly caught by the recalcitrant goddess. He fled to avoid discovery by the twin goddess.

    Finally, when he could delay no longer, he returned to the Gardens of Paradise. He hovered around the place until his nemesis, the self-important pompous ass Orinaar Trin¡¯arbour was in charge of the reception hall.

    Sin Tchai, carefully did his best to try and sneak past Orinaar in such a way as to be caught by him. And sure enough...

    ¡°Sin Tchai, you miserable little worm. When will you learn that you can¡¯t sneak past me!¡± snarled Orinaar Trin¡¯arbour. ¡°What do you have there?¡±

    Sin Tchai cringed theatrically and tried ineffectually to hide his messenger bag. Orinaar looked at the snivelling messenger suspiciously. ¡°Guards. Seize that miscreant and fetch his bag here!¡±

    Sin Tchai winced as two guards grabbed hold of him roughly. He watched with considerable nervousness as another took his bag with its two messages and handed it to Orinaar. He watched, while dangling between the two guards as Orinaar opened the bag and checked its contents.

    Orinaar smiled triumphantly. He looked at the two messages, then he glared at Sin Tchai. ¡°So you wanted the glory of delivering an important message to our lord.¡±

    ¡°No Orinaar. Honest. No I didn¡¯t,¡± babbled Sin Tchai, even as he looked round frantically.

    ¡°Ha! Throw him in the cells for the night. And don¡¯t feed him.¡±

    The last thing Sin Tchai saw as he was dragged away was Orinaar handing the thicker of the envelopes to his toady, even as he headed for the inner doors with the other. Sin Tchai was still grinning as the guards propelled him into the bare cell with a forceful kick to the posterior.

    * * *

    Orinaar Trin¡¯arbour hurried to place the missive from the barbarian goddess in the hands of his friend, the third undersecretary. That individual smiled insincerely as he accepted it with several meaningless phrases of gratitude.

    As always after such interactions Orinaar nursed doubts as to the sincerity of his friend¡¯s gratitude and his usefulness in regards to his own advancement. He was just preparing to return to his post when a shriek of rage sounded from Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz¡¯s chamber and the broken body of the third undersecretary came flying through the closed door of Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz¡¯s audience chamber.

    Orinaar decided to make himself scarce before his friend recovered ¨C if he ever did, and was hurrying to the door when he was halted by a bellow from one of the lord¡¯s guards. He stopped reluctantly, and turned to see the black horned fellow glaring at him through the large hole in the door. ¡°Come!¡±

    Very reluctantly Orinaar headed towards the guard who stepped back with a gesture for him to enter. ¡®This is all Sin Tchai¡¯s fault for being so clumsy... I¡¯ll get him. Just wait and see...¡¯ thought Orinaar as he ducked to step through the hole in the door.

    He found Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz striding from side to side, his moustache of tails all a bristle and lashing about. Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz stopped and glared at him. ¡°You! Whomever you are, you will lead a pair of my guards and fetch this... this... goddess before me. I will have her here post haste. Now go. Find her! fetch her here. Now!¡±

    ¡°But your lordship. I have no idea how to find...¡±

    ¡°Take a guide. If you fail... well you will regret it. Understand?¡±

    ¡°Y-yes m-my l-l-lord,¡± stuttered Orinaar in a near panic.

    * * *

    When the two guards came for him, Sin Tchai was worried. It had only been a few hours. ¡®What is going on?¡¯ he worried. ¡®Have they figured out what I did? What is going to happen to me now?¡¯

    He licked his lips with worry when he saw the two towering black horned, flame-eyed mutant rat-ogre guards that Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz favoured.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°Sin Tchai you will lead us to the goddess our great lord wishes to see.¡±

    The shrill, somehow tremulous voice of Orinaar Trin¡¯arbour jerked his fascinated attention from the rat-ogres. Orinaar was obviously terrified. Sin Tchai¡¯s eyes darted around and he noted the lack of any secretary or undersecretary. He was able to guess what happened to the poor bastard when Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz had read the Mother of Monster¡¯s insulting if frank answer.

    He licked dry lips again as he gave a jerky nod. ¡°Certainly... Now?¡±

    The bigger of the two rat-ogres showed a plenitude of sharp teeth in a pleased grin. ¡°Now,¡± he agreed.

    Sin Tchai bowed to the monster and turned to scurry towards to the main exit to the Gardens of Paradise. Even has he spun frantic plots in his mind Sin Tchai heard the monsters¡¯ pleased rumble.

    ¡°See Orinaar-y¨­gisha, that is how one is supposed to respond to our lord¡¯s commands.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C BLACKROCK * * *

    Colonel Elijah Anderson examined the basement room. It had been set up for sergeant Harmond but it would do equally well for private Doolin. He had studied everything he could get his hands on regarding dungeons and had been worried regarding the need for a companion.

    Luckily they found a volunteer. One of ours, a victim of an IED in Afghanistan, now a paraplegic. For some reason the man was willing to become a dungeon pixie. Thankfully pixies came in both sexes or he doubted they¡¯d have been able to convince the man. It had taken some doing to get him integrated, and it had gained their volunteer a promotion.

    Anderson inspected the banks of instruments facing the solid pedestal that would initially serve as a chair for private Doolin. He checked with the assembled scientists that everything was ready, then with the guards.

    ¡°You ready sergeant Lee?¡± asked Anderson of the thirty-two centimetre tall winged dungeon pixie who was dressed in a slightly modified uniform.

    ¡°Yes sir!¡± barked sergeant Jimmy Lee.

    * * *

    Fin was holding onto his humanity by the skin of his teeth. He had been flown into Area 51 but due to his state he had not been able to take anything in.

    If it was not for his escorts, he would have been lost long ago. As he was hurried into a remote bunker, he vaguely noted that it looked fresh and new. Now that it was far too late he was starting to have second thoughts. He wondered if he would ever see his son again. His ex-wife he didn¡¯t really care about. Their relationship had soured in the last year.

    Then he was being ushered out of a lift and down a flight of stairs into a room filled with bright lights and people. Everyone seemed to be jabbering at him. He stood there and swayed, understanding nothing.

    Then he was pushed into the middle of all the things and persuaded to sit on a pedestal, or maybe it was a chair. He vaguely heard someone say ¡°Go ahead private, you can change now.¡±

    * * *

    Colonel Anderson examined private Doolin as he was escorted into what would become his core room. The man was swaying and his eyes were unfocused. If he didn¡¯t know any better, he would have thought he was drugged to the eyeballs.

    It quickly became obvious that Doolin was unable to understand anything that was said to him.

    ¡°Place private Doolin in place,¡± ordered Anderson.

    As soon as the man was perched, somewhat unsteadily on the pedestal, the scientists focused their instruments on him. There was a short pause.

    ¡°Go ahead private, you can change now,¡± Anderson told him.

    There was another short pause before Doolin seemed to be covered by a shimmering dark shroud of light. Slowly it fell in on itself and shrank. Finally all that was left was a small multifaceted dark opal globe, a small gem.

    After about a minute the gem began to flicker with spots of light, they flickered here and there for a while before bands of glowing fire flowed across the surface and the people nearest the gem felt their hair try to stand on end.

    And then near the core there were two black rocks. Only the rocks spread their legs and stood. They were spiders, covered in short bristly black hair, and with their legs spread they were easily sixty centimetres across.

    One of the scientists squealed and fled screaming in horror at the sight of the spiders.

    * * *

    Fin could think again. He could sense everything around him. Somehow he could see without having eyes. He could sense a link that connected him to a younger version of himself. And he knew he was Blackrock. And he had a small but well defended dungeon on Ambuila, a planet with a very long year, orbiting a blue tinted star.

    ? your current Monster Type is Arachnids. If you wish to sever your link to yourself you may change this. Otherwise be aware that you will be restricted by this choice until you accumulate sufficient mana and experience to gain further advances. ?

    ? Um, spiders? Spiders is good. ?

    ? Then ¨C Done! ?

    Fin flexed and claimed as much as the room as he could, being stopped by the presence of higher-level individuals than himself. Then he summoned two mobs or guardians. The spiders were cute ¨C or at least Fin thought so. He knew that they could jump close to ten meters and their venom was deadly.

    Fin watched the arachnophobe flee with amusement. Then he eyed the remaining scientists and army personnel in his room with suspicion. He should have listened to the other dungeons, but they had struck him as so ¨C so ¨C ruthless. Especially Winter Wolf and Blue Lagoon. ¡®At least I didn¡¯t say much thanks to how out of it I was feeling. But I still think they must be wrong about things. I am a patriot and I will help the US. But I am also a dungeon, Um...¡¯

    It was then that Blackrock noticed the uniformed Dungeon Pixie. Sergeant Lee flew up to the core and landed on the pedestal, next to the core.

    ¡°Do you need a companion private? Will I do?¡±

    Fin examined the Pixie, he thought that it was a necessity and he was at a loss of how else he could find one here in Area 51. So despite a degree of cautious reluctance he accepted.

 Chapter 133

    * * * SIN TCHAI THE MESSENGER * * *

    Sin Tchai led the mismatched party into the void between the realms. He studied his seeker-compass. Once again the needle was hovering between two destinations. The first he recognised as the throne room where he had last met the goddess. It was closer, but the other location was one of the lower worlds¡¯ god realms.

    He studied his seeker-compass carefully, calling up some of its more obscure functions. The goddess was ready for a fight, and he could read that she had powerful allies. Sin Tchai used all his willpower to show no emotions. ¡®I will have to be very careful,¡¯ he thought to himself. ¡®But if ¨C no when ¨C Orinaar-y¨­gisha and those muscle headed rat-ogres goad the goddess into a fight... I¡¯ll have to be careful not to get involved ¨C but Orinaar-y¨­gisha will be humbled. I only hope they don¡¯t kill her, but as she will have backup...¡¯

    Sin Tchai put his seeker-compass away and turned to the chief rat-ogre. ¡°Honourable warrior, the goddess the great lord Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz seeks is in the gods realm of Ambuila, one of the lower worlds. Our journey will not take long. Please follow me.¡±

    Orinaar Trin¡¯arbour had been quietly seething ever since they had left the Gardens of Paradise. He resented the arrogance of the rat-ogres. He hated the way they mocked and insulted him, they had no cause to use ¡®y¨­gisha¡¯ in relation to him. He even seethed at the way that pest Sin Tchai bowed down and hurried to curry favour with the ignorant monsters.

    He had to prove his worth, and he thought he knew how. He vaguely remembered something that had crossed his desk recently. ¡°Ambuila? Isn¡¯t that one of the worlds the New Sages have claimed to prove their theories? I heard Brinius of the Blue Host and Meera the Night, both of the lower high tier are involved with Ambuila.¡±

    The rat-ogre snorted in contempt and kept urging Orinaar on with the point of his ceremonial halberd. Sin Tchai closed his eyes briefly in apprehension, but did not check his headlong pace. In fact he could already sense the world¡¯s shimmering barrier approaching rapidly.

    Then they were in Ambuila¡¯s Gods Realm. Sin Tchai was the only one to note that the realm was sick. It was obviously linked to a dying world, and the gods who resided herein were weak and hated, or resented by whatever worshipers they had.

    So when they found the goddess and her followers in the middle of a fight, that had already left two of the local gods dead, Orinaar¡¯s outraged exclamation did not help.

    Sin Tchai stepped aside, allowing those he had led here to pass even as he edged backwards until he was standing right against the point from which they had arrived. He was gazing in horrified fascination at a trio of eyes that were floating in the air nearby. That they were enveloped in a faint reddish glow didn¡¯t help his peace of mind. Villius of the eyes was watching the present from somewhere in their ¨C no, from somewhere in the future.

    * * * AMBUILA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary stepped through her portal into the latest of her dungeons. She grinned at the fiery skinned woman with black hair at her side. She recognised the ambition burning in the young-old volcano goddess¡¯ breast. Not that she was worried, in any world she controlled; the seas would trump the volcanoes.

    Mary examined her domain. ¡®Ideally I should be plannin¡¯ this better, but, time is at a premium. Gotta do sumetin¡¯ ¡¯fore somethin¡¯ irreplaceable goes extinct. An¡¯ sometin¡¯ tells me to hurry.¡¯

    She watched as Bes, Shulmanu, Ratumaibulu and Achuhucanac stepped through her portal in their turn. They were all looking much improved, just the overflow from her followers on Parthia had rejuvenated them. And they knew what was at stake here. She felt confident that she would be adding another world to her portfolio. They should prove very popular on Ambuila.

    Once everyone was present Mary ascended to the Gods Realm with her new pantheon. ¡®Guess I¡¯m not a minor goddess anymore. Wonder when Bluey will stick his nose in next.¡¯

    By the time they forced their way into Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa¡¯s throne room, Mary discovered that Shulmanu, a god of the underworld, fertility, and war was an excellent find. He had proved dedicated and ruthless. The few diminished gods they had found, all had stood by their absurd curse, and Shulmanu had reaped their souls. Bes had also proved his worth.

    Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa was seated on his throne of skulls. Around him were three gods that seemed less impacted by the malaise of his court. The rest of the gods looked like they would be blown away by a stiff breeze.

    ¡°Who are you? And how dare you slay the members of my court?¡± commanded Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa. ¡°Know you not that you are before one anointed by the Greater Gods.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Mary Silvestre, Mother of Monsters and Blackbeard¡¯s Bane. I¡¯m the chief god of Fragatta an¡¯ soon will be chief god of Ambuila. I suggest you remove your curse of infertility an¡¯ vacate or I¡¯ll kill you.¡±

    * * *

    ¡°Blasphemy. You blaspheme against Brinius of the Blue Host and Meera the Night of the New Sages,¡± exclaimed Orinaar Trin¡¯arbour in shock.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Seeing what he believed to be reinforcements Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa screamed, ¡°Kill them!¡±

    Bes cracked his knuckles with glee and charged the gods to his front. The poor decayed and deluded ones forming the front lines fell like wheat to a scythe.

    Mary grinned, ¡°Shulmanu, keep those idiots from the Gardens off our backs. This shouldn¡¯t take long.¡± Then she summoned up a light sabre. Mary frowned at the blood red tube, she concentrated and the colour changed to blue and the tube became a thin blade. She concentrated a bit longer, and only when her new sword was basically invisible, bar a faint series of flickering blue flames was she satisfied.

    Mary found herself hard pressed by Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa. Bes, Achuhucanac and Ratumaibulu tore through the rest of the gods in short order. Mary kept dodging and backing; only occasionally attacking. And yet both her and Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa were bleeding from minor wounds. ¡°Bes, help Shulmanu,¡± she gasped. ¡°C¡¯mon Achuhucanac, Ratumaibulu lets finish this.¡±

    On seeing Bes crush Orinaar¡¯s head with one punch after Shulmanu tore the two rat-ogres apart, Sin Tchai turned and fled ¨C rightly assuming that his job was to report, not fight.

    * * *

    Mary dismissed the distasteful ¨C to her ¨C throne room of the gods of Ambuila. She modelled her new throne room on the one she found comfortable on Fragatta.

    A sand fringed spur came into being; the ocean pounding one side, on the other, the bay side, the sea washed the beach with small ripples. In the shallow waters of the bay, two identical thrones emerged.

    Mary took her seat on one of the thrones and grinned at her fiery skinned volcano goddess, who was lounging comfortably amongst the lava of her private lava pool, sited about as far from the seas as it was possible to be.

    * * *

    On Parthia Mary felt the call of her core, she grinned at her followers, most of whom were currently on their knees with looks of exaltation on their faces. She released her avatar and settled herself into her core before projecting into the Gods Realm of ... Ambuila. There she found herself sitting on one of twin thrones beside herself. Mary merged with herself, and again truly became the two in one.

    Mary confirmed her claim on Ambuila, and her pantheon¡¯s claim. They shattered the remains of the curse that the New Gods claimed was a blessing.

    Amid flashing blue screens that she ¨C as usual ¨C ignored, she felt temples crumble and reform. She and her pantheon sensed the shock, exultation and denial of their new priesthoods. The deniers they ejected from the temples, the rest spread out to spread the news of the overthrow of the old gods by the new.

    * * * AMBUILA ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Unnamed (Tammy O¡¯Hare): What the fuck? What is going on? A bloody great temple just showed up out at sea, and my Badger ¡¯Folk have all gone nuts.

    Ulruk¡¯s Gift (cmp): Well the temple of Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa has been replaced by a saltwater lake with a statue of a dolphin presiding over an altar in the middle. The temple of Ulruk has changed. It is now the temple of Shulmanu, the god of the underworld, fertility, and war. Fertility! I just hope that means the curse is gone.

    Frostgrave (cmp): It is. Fertile guardians now cost my dungeon as much as infertile ones.

    Blackrock: I have reconnected with my Earth other self. He¡¯s a wimp, but I learned a lot about Blue Lagoon. Tell me Tammy, does that temple have something to do with her?

    Unnamed (Tammy O¡¯Hare): I don¡¯t know Fin, but all the Badger ¡¯Folk she gave me have swum out to it. So, probably.

    Ulruk¡¯s Gift (cmp): A group of adventurers who are trying to plunder our dungeon can¡¯t stop gossiping. The gods were overthrown and slain by a band of foreign gods led by the Mother of Monsters. And the foreign gods have banished the curse. When the pregnancies start they will be unassailable.

    Unnamed (Tammy O¡¯Hare): Mother of Monsters? That¡¯s Mary! Blue Lagoon! You mean A dungeon is our world¡¯s chief God err... goddess?!?!?!!

    Ulruk¡¯s Gift (cmp): I checked! It¡¯s true! The godlike dungeon Blue Lagoon has the title ¡®Mother of Monsters¡¯.

    Hyena Gulch: That Egyptian dwarf Bes is the new God in the town!!!! And he¡¯s into fertility too!?! What gives? And how come I can suddenly remember everything from Earth? Flitter, my companion, could only tell me that the mental barrier that was binding me was removed.

    Unnamed (Daniel Azevedo): Me too. I can remember now, and think.

    * * * EARTH ¨C BLACKROCK * * *

    Fin watched as sergeant Lee flew over to where Colonel Anderson was watching procedures.

    ¡°Sir, private Doolin has stabilised. He is better than we had dared hope. The uncertainty, and the erratic behaviour, must have all been a result of the stress of trying to prevent the change.¡±

    ¡°Very good. That¡¯s good to know sergeant,¡± said Anderson. ¡°Is there anything either of you need?¡±

    ¡°Fin... erm, private...¡±

    ¡°Feel free to refer to your dungeon however feels better. His name is Fin, so, as long as you aren¡¯t making an official report, by all means, you may call Fin Fin.¡±

    ¡°Well sir, Fin is worried about his son. He wants to know how, or if we are making child payments on his behalf.¡±

    ¡°Please reassure him sergeant. I am sure he is, but I will check personally to be sure. Anything else? What about yourself?¡±

    ¡°That was, and is Fin¡¯s principal worry. The divorce no longer worries him. As for myself, can it be reported to my brother and uncle that I died. And arrange for a suitable ceremony?¡±

    ¡°If you are absolutely sure that is what you want. I¡¯m sure your current condition would seem an improvement to your brother.¡±

    ¡°Yes colonel. My brother is a no good scrounger. I would be glad never to see him again. Especially as he can¡¯t expect me to have anything to leave him under the circumstances.¡±

    ¡°Very well sergeant. I¡¯ll see to it. Will you want a recording of the service?¡±

    Lee¡¯s lips stretched into a grin, ¡°Oh that would be great sir. Yes please.¡±

    Anderson gave a curt nod of acceptance. ¡°Now that the important details have been discussed, do you have any news for me? And why hasn¡¯t Fin grown his domain?¡±

    Sergeant Lee¡¯s lips twitched slightly. ¡°Your presence sir. Fin can¡¯t claim territory occupied by a higher levelled character. And as Fin can¡¯t determine your level...¡±

    Anderson slapped his forehead in exasperation. "Very well, I¡¯ll remove myself, and any of the investigators you designate. Anything else?¡±

    ¡°We lucked out sir. Fin has an active link. It¡¯s with a dungeon on a world named Ambuila. I don¡¯t think that world has shown up yet. Or has it?¡±

    Anderson scanned his tablet. ¡°No, that world is new to us.¡± He grinned briefly. ¡°See if you can claim this room ASAP. Would claiming a gym be good? Frog, the dungeon core of the Arena of Blood has offered to create one, he claimed that people exercising give off more energy that a dungeon can use.¡±

 Chapter 134

    * * * EARTH ¨C BLACKROCK * * *

    That evening Fin finished claiming the room he found himself in, that is, once every other person that had been integrated by the System had left. He brooded in silence for a while. He waited impatiently until Sarge had retired to the elaborate ¨C upgraded ¨C doll¡¯s house he had been supplied with. When he was sure Sarge was asleep he, rather hesitantly called up the Dungeon Exchange.

    He lurked for a bit, gathering courage. He felt like an idiot. His other self had been decidedly incredulous at his choices. And he had given him a bit of information regarding companions that he found worrying.

    Also, their link was weak. He had to work out how to strengthen it. He suspected ¨C no, he was sure that link was one of the things the colonel really prized.

    * * * EARTH ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Unnamed #11 (PrD): Company I worked for hired an office on the Moon, I¡¯m working there. Ever since then, I¡¯ve been dreaming of thick fogs and choking air. What gives?

    Unnamed #7: Thanks for sending the Tiger Girl Blue. The nightclub idea is great. Appreciate the loan and help.

    Stillwater: What gives, just been contacted by another version of me. She says she¡¯s a dungeon on Ambuila... Hey this blog is cool. Poor retention though.

    Blue Lagoon (cmp): That¡¯s a plus Katie, not a minus. And you¡¯re welcome Markus.

    Mock Turtle (cmp): Says the companion to our ¨C favourite ¨C favour giver...

    Stillwater: Hey, how you know I¡¯m Katie?

    Blue Lagoon (cmp): Alice, don¡¯t be mean... *giggle*

    Blackrock: Dungeons, we have a problem... I want to keep this feature secret but... My companion, well, he is an ex soldier. Also, how can I strengthen my link with ¨C that other version of me?

    Blue Lagoon (cmp): I¡¯ve ¨C interacted ¨C with the you on Ambuila Katie.

    Arena of Blood: Hey #11, sounds that other you is on Tarifax. Hope you¡¯re still free.

    Alligator Haven: Y¡¯ve gone an¡¯ dun it Blackie, plunked yerself daan in Area 51 aintcha? Idjit!

    Blackrock: Yeah! So!

    Blue Lagoon (cmp): *sigh* Kay, tell your companion the head of Earth¡¯s Dungeon Companion¡¯s League ¨C that¡¯s me case you didn¡¯t know ¨C will be getting in touch to give him the rules.

    Arena of Blood: Way I do it Blakie, is to merge with the other me every few days. Mother does it daily, but Mother has a hell of a lot more going on than me.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C CORPORAL ROY ANDERSON * * *

    Roy leant on the ship¡¯s rail as he looked back at Varina¡¯s Beach. That whole experience had been Surreal. He had never expected to find himself fighting the Mutant Ninja Turtles. And the damn things had been lots better than he and Gunny had expected. They had managed to clear the first and second levels. But the Turtles had stopped them, possibly because they couldn¡¯t help themselves. It had been too damn funny.

    And now they had to return with pizza of all things. A delayed ransom. He looked around and frankly stared. A good fraction of the crew and several passengers were on their knees with a look of ecstacy on their faces. The Enchanter and his kids included.

    ¡°Fucking Gods War...¡± muttered one of the adventurers they had picked up at Varina¡¯s Beach.

    Roy looked at him, ¡°Err... What do you mean by that? What god¡¯s war?¡±

    The leather clad rogue glanced at him, half scornfully. ¡°The god¡¯s war. It¡¯s the prophecy. This lot¡¯s goddess is in the thick of it. So when she gets into a fight, or something else dicey...¡± The man rolled his eyes heavenward, ¡°up there, you know, her true believers... the fanatics ¨C get dragged along.

    ¡°They share some of the risks, and reap some of the rewards.¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    Roy looked at him, unbelieving, ¡°The kids too... that little leopard girl...¡±

    ¡°Well yes... She is kinda young. But if she truly believes... and is willing, the System will send her consciousness along for a share. The name¡¯s Dar¡¯dillus by the way. And you are?¡±

    ¡°Roy¡ª Roy Anderson. Did you try that crazy dungeon back there?¡±

    ¡°Yes. The rewards weren¡¯t bad. It has really improved lately. But it¡¯s still kind of weak. In a year or two, given the increased interest I suspect it will become a decent enough dungeon.¡±

    Roy looked at him thoughtfully, he and Gunny had struggled, and this character was downright dismissive of the challenges. Before he could say anything else, a soft bluish haze enveloped the kneelers. Then they started to get to their feet with grins of triumph.

    ¡°Looks like the Mother of Monsters scored a major victory,¡± observed Dar¡¯dillus softly.

    Ray stared at the little goblin girl as she jumped up and down with joy. ¡°How do you know? Is it because of the glow?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I am ¨C almost ¨C envious. They all gained something major today. But that means the Mother of Monsters took a big risk. And they could have lost big,¡± Dar¡¯dillus snorted softly. ¡°I truly wish them well, you understand ¨C the prophecy ¨C well I hope their side wins. But I don¡¯t want to be involved.¡±

    Ray watched as the enchanter swept his children into a joyful group hug and worried.

    * * * EARTH ¨C FLORIDA * * *

    The watchers employed to watch the Silvestre Boat Yard cursed the thick fog. It had come up unexpectedly and was covering several kilometres of coastline. Given the stealth systems routinely employed by their target it made them feel useless.

    In the boat yard, the big doors of the boathouse rolled up, and a mid sized destroyer nosed its way out into the gulf. Once it was out of the boathouse the destroyer ghosted its way along the coast heading east then south.

    On the bridge, captain Qaddistra Seaspray watched her instruments carefully. She cursed having to swap out some of the better detectors. She worried, knowing that the current second-rate gear she was using, would be fooled by some of what Mother had taught the local¡¯s navy.

    She breathed a big sigh of relief when they reached a point opposite the town of Tampa. She turned to her communications officer. ¡°Get in touch. Tell them the Sea Viper is ready to be turned over. Let them know where we are and ask them where they want us?¡±

    The Sea Viper kept on heading south and to the relief of her captain she slowly emerged from the fog bank leaving it behind. Qaddistra grinned as she saw the blip on the detector. She waited until the aircraft was almost overhead before she flicked the switch cancelling the Sea Viper¡¯s stealth. The way the aircraft suddenly changed course and started circling pleased her.

    * * *

    Admiral Forester watched as the Sea Viper docked. He watched as her crew, a mixed bag of humans, elves, wolf and cat people came ashore. The handover was done and he watched as the skeleton crew that had sailed the destroyer boarded a luxury touring bus and drove away. That just left a handful of specialists to teach them about the various systems.

    Well it was confirmed; the tyrant of the isles had portals big enough to transit a destroyer. And they still didn¡¯t know where it was thanks to the Fog that had appeared at just the right, or wrong time. And that worried him more than the damn portal. That was almost certainly lurking somewhere in that boat yard.

    The weapons specialists were drooling over the laser cannon in the bow. He personally was furious that economy had struck, and the rapid-fire AA lasers and their controlling magics had not been purchased.

    At least they had both aircraft.

    * * * EARTH & TARIFAX ¨C LOUISIANA * * *

    Grey scratched his right horn. He examined the breather mask he had obtained from Frog. He was understandably very careful with this essential item as he would be shortly leading a small band to Tarifax. He didn¡¯t intend to return to Earth. He was still unsettled because he couldn¡¯t reach Ustraldis. As a priest, the lack of contact with his goddess was crippling.

    He lifted his head and examined Ax. The man had changed drastically ever since Frog had facilitated his meeting with Felix and Silk. The two winged cats had done the impossible; they had reversed the man¡¯s brain damage. Ax had converted to the Mother of Monsters and had become rabidly pro cat. Grey was sure Ax would be returning to Earth. He was sporting an earring instead of a mask. Silk was somewhere nearby. She had an earring too, a tiny one in her case.

    Lia was just as interested in her breather mask as he was. She too didn¡¯t trust the earrings. She was looking a lot better. Well they all were. Plenty of food and rest tended to have that effect.

    Mesca was the reluctant one. The mage was scared. He didn¡¯t want to return to Tarifax. But he was loyal to the group, and their only other human. He was wearing nondescript clothing, and was carrying a large overcoat. Much better than the farce of a mage¡¯s robe they¡¯d forced on him.

    Ana was elsewhere. Her employers wanted her to help them deal with Blue Lagoon. As a priest, he thought they were crazy. How could they trust the follower of a goddess to not obey her goddess.

    He smiled fondly as he remembered Fingers. That little ¡®film¡¯ of her and her new family she¡¯d emailed them had been heart warming. What had she said she was called now, oh yes, Mrald. She¡¯d reverted to the name her mother had given her.

    Ah it was time. He rose and bowed slightly to the four people they would be escorting this time. He knew that they were officially being hired by the local city government, but he was sure it was a cover for their real paymaster.

    As they had discussed Ax went first with Lia. Silk took to the air and glided down the long corridor. They had lost a goblin scout and gained a cat. He felt happier when they had Fin... Mrald. He just didn¡¯t trust cats.

    They emerged into the thick fog of Tarifax. They were standing amongst some rather sad looking trees. The vegetation looked wilted and sad. Especially after their short stay on Earth. Now for the hard part, finding out who owned this land and seeing if they could buy it.

 Chapter 135

    * * * SIN TCHAI THE MESSENGER * * *

    A shaken Sin Tchai crept back to the Gardens of Paradise. He found himself staring at the palace, Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz¡¯s palace far sooner than he wanted. He was well aware that he was screwed. The only thing left to do was to minimise the damage. And that meant avoiding Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz. It shouldn¡¯t be difficult, after all he had never met Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz before.

    The trouble was, as soon as any functionary heard what had happened on Ambuila, He would be kowtowing in front of Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz. Everyone would be scrambling to keep their heads on their shoulders.

    Reluctantly he crept towards the servant¡¯s entrance. Normally he avoided it, but he did sort of qualify as a servant. He stepped into the palace. He found himself in a depressing grey passageway. He was lucky. He didn¡¯t meet anyone. Actually given the dusty state of the floor he suspected that this entrance didn¡¯t get much use.

    Once he was in the more travelled public corridors Sin Tchai clutched an envelope and walked briskly. As he looked as if he was expected, he avoided being stopped. Finally he found himself in front of the elaborate double doors to Foozharn Longlegs suite of offices. He smiled at the two honour guards and waved his envelope. ¡°Would one of you be so kind as to deliver this to the honourable secretary?¡± he asked hopefully.

    Sin Tchai breathed a sigh of relief when the guards ignored him and opened one of the doors. They showed no emotion, but Sin Tchai spotted the sadistic glint in their eyes.

    Calling up all his guile and acting ability he edged his way into the opulent receiving room. He edged his way towards the desk behind which Foozharn¡¯s principal secretary reigned. He noted with well concealed relief that his humble ¨C and excessive ¨C bowing and nervous looks had gained that worthy¡¯s attention.

    ¡°What do you want messenger?¡±

    Sin Tchai licked his lips, ¡°Erm ¨C I have a reply written by a goddess. A goddess lord Foozharn Longlegs and the great Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz ordered to present herself. Erm ¨C you will see the great lord gets it, won¡¯t you noble lady.¡±

    Sassa-arrissa looked down at the cringing messenger. She could clearly see he did not wish to be present. She found that suspicious, as messengers were notorious attention seekers. ¡°Let¡¯s see that message,¡± she demanded.

    She snatched the ¨C open ¨C envelope from the messenger¡¯s hand and barked, ¡°Wait!¡±

    She slipped the message out of the envelope, and her eyes flew open in shock when she read the brief missive. No wonder that miserable individual wanted someone else to deliver this message. Just to be certain, she passed the letter over a detector, confirming it had been written by one of the lesser gods. The ones exiled from the Gardens.

    She returned the brief letter to the envelope with a shudder. ¡°You¡¯re the messenger. It¡¯s your job to deliver this.¡± She turned to one of her flunkies, ¡°Show him into Lord Foozharn.¡±

    Maintaining his act, Sin Tchai followed the grinning flunkey with visible reluctance. He cursed to himself when the flunkey, throwing open the door to Foozharn¡¯s office, announced him.

    ¡°Great Lord Foozharn Longlegs, a messenger has arrived bearing a missive from the lower realms.¡±

    Sin Tchai stiffened his spine and walked steadily into the presence of one he considered to be ¨C at least, marginally sensible.

    Foozharn cocked his head and fixed Sin Tchai with one shining yellow eye. ¡°Oh I say boy. You failed me boy. Why did you not fetch your previous messages to me as ordered. Boys these centuries, they just don¡¯t listen.¡±Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    Sin Tchai held himself stiff. ¡°My lord, I was intercepted. The delegation led by Orinaar Trin¡¯arbour arrived at the start of the Mother of Monsters attempt to seize primacy in Ambuila.

    ¡°Orinaar Trin¡¯arbour made an unfortunate comment and included his delegation amongst her enemies.

    ¡°The Mother of Monsters and her allies triumphed without loss. Orinaar Trin¡¯arbour and two of lord Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz¡¯s guard were slain. Lord Villius of the Eyes was watching from the future. I observed a trio of eyes surrounded by a reddish haze."

    Foozharn Longlegs froze for an instant, then he snapped claw tipped fingers and held out a down covered hand. ¡°Oh I say boy ¨C hand me that letter boy. I¡¯m not deaf. I heard Sassa-arrissa''s flunkey.¡±

    Hesitantly, Sin Tchai withdrew his precious letter and placed it gently in the outstretched hand.

    Foozharn ran his eyes over the letter and managed to jerk his head up, so that the plume of fire that erupted from his beak scorched the ceiling, and not his hand and the letter he was holding.

    Still staring at the ceiling Foozharn broke into laughter. ¡°Oh I say boy, she is a fiery, a fiery little thing.¡±

    Sin Tchai blinked. He was feeling stupefied, laughter was the last thing he had expected. And, then too, he would never have described that terrifying goddess as small.

    Then he froze as Foozharn examined him. ¡°Villius? You will go to Villius, boy. You will tell him I want to see him. What are you doing here boy?¡±

    Sin Tchai recovered his wits and fled, grateful to be still alive.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Markowitz has used his exile in this primitive backwater to make notes. He was now reluctantly certain that he was no longer on Earth. He was going to recommend that the US take over the Moon Base. He was certain it would be easy. There were several shops with gates in the US. It would be easy.

    Then they could take over the country the stupid girl believed she ruled. It would even be for her own good. The poor girl was a minor, and she was obviously deluded, and needed help. There was no other reason for a US citizen to consider herself a goddess.

    They would have to locate the people behind her. They would seem to be responsible for many deaths. Possibly for that massacre in Somalia too. They had to be made to pay.

    He watched as Helli flirted with Tomcat under the semi-hostile eyes of the cat man¡¯s concubine. The damn bigamist obviously couldn¡¯t be legally married. Not when he lived in a country that would soon be taken over.

    The agent had been reluctant, but he had managed to persuade her that it was for the greater good.

    He watched as they left the bizarre iron structure in the middle of the ocean, they had dropped off a party of so called adventurers there.

    When they finally arrived at their destination, Markowitz was eager to get back to Washington so as to be able to file his report, and to lobby for the logical takeover. He headed for the US embassy the moment he disembarked. Half of his escort had to scramble in order to keep up with him. The other half remained behind with the independent contractors.

    Markowitz had already made clear his thoughts as to the total waste of time and treasure they represented. His report was also, rather uncomplimentary, regarding the army presence. They were uncouth, and ¨C unappreciative of his knowledge and opinions.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary noted when Tomcat entered her domain, bored, she scanned the Alessandrina¡¯s Glory and her passengers and crew. She grinned as she noted the seeds many of the crew had. She noted that two crew members had used the gift to acquire gills on the line of her sea humans.

    She was unable to avoid laughing. She looked at her voice. ¡°Tomcat¡¯s wives are going to kill him,¡± she grinned.

    Drinna¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°Another one?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± grinned Mary. ¡°I suppose he was indulging just before, or just after, the fight. The divine mana seed must have negated the contraceptive enchantment, and drug, and boosted both of their fertilities.¡±

    Drinna giggled and looked downright mischievous. ¡°Can I tell the wives?¡±

    ¡°By all means. I¡¯m going to break the good news to Tomcat.¡±

    ? Tomcat, congrats on the new baby to be. ?

    ? What baby Mother? ?

    ? Why, the one you planted in Helli on the night of my takeover of Ambuila. ?

    ? Oh shit! The ladies are going... ?

    ? Has that rockhead Markowitz learned anythin¡¯, or is he as objectionable as ever. ?

    ? He is worse Mother, and will you be the child¡¯s godmother? ?

    Mary laughed again.

    ? If she agrees, and if she doesn¡¯t have an abortion. And I guess you want Drina to baptise the kid. ?

    ? Yes. ?

    * * *

    Mary linked to Trisha and Drina. The three watched with glee as Tomcat went to tell Clarrina the news. Clarrina threw her hands up in the air and glared at the contraception amulet hanging around her husband¡¯s neck. After a few heated words they went to find Helli.

    The three snoops lost interest at that point and each went her way with wide smiles.

 Chapter 136

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Markowitz dropped into his armchair. He was horrified at the changes that were occurring in Washington. He dropped the cardboard box he had been handed by the security guard when he had informed him that his security clearance had been revoked.

    He reached into the box and extracted the open bottle of bourbon. He looked at it remembering the look of malicious glee in the security puke¡¯s eye. Grimacing, he tossed the bottle in the bin. Reaching into his box, he extracted a sealed bottle. Cracking the seal he took a long pull from the bottle.

    He was shocked. Perez was out, as was Wilkinson. Their two main backers in congress, one had resigned, the other was scrambling for cover. As had the senator, he was saying that he was standing down at the next election. That creep in the Whitehouse was being insufferable in his victory. As for his contact in CNN, she had committed suicide. And that was very unlike the bitch.

    He had to do something to save his reputation, but all the contacts he had laboriously built up were scurrying around like cockroaches under a spotlight.

    * * *

    Markowitz woke feeling horrible. He shifted in his armchair and winced at the clink of glass. He hunched over and looked at the three empty bottles at his feet. He lurched to his feet and left at a fast shuffle for his bathroom.

    By the time he was feeling marginally human again he was feeling more confused than before. The various media companies were tearing into each other. They all seemed to have dirt on each other¡¯s managers, reporters and anchors. It was after watching the vicious mudslinging for a bit, that a chill ran up his spine. He knew all about the smear they were talking about. He knew it was true, because he had been one of the agents who had helped to bury that story... And that meant...

    Markowitz hurried to pack a bag. He called a taxi and had it drop him off at Union Station. He hurried in and dropped off his bag in a locker before heading for the restrooms. There he made a few changes to his appearance and headed for a nearby bank.

    Desperation had sent him hurrying to get the safety deposit box he had buried in the bank under a false id. With the appropriate contents in his pocket he left, returning for his bag before boarding the first train headed west.

    He sat looking out of the window at the scenery while he plotted. Maybe he could persuade that idiotic survivalist militia outfit to help him take over the moon, or even better, grab the girl. He could only hope ¡°they¡± would forgive anything to the man who opened up another world.

    He just needed the right story to persuade those paranoid idiots. Stressing magic and the aliens would be a big plus for his case. And then again, he knew where the CIA had a cache of weapons. He was sure the gun nuts would love that.

    * * *

    Feeling old and creaky, Markowitz abandoned the latest train with relief in Denver. He took a taxi to a local hotel and after a quick meal he retired for the night.

    The following day he hired a powerful truck; something he hoped would take him through Wyoming and into Montana. He hated the thought of driving through the mountains in November. But needs must.

    Two days later he drove carefully down the badly kept dirt track to the compound the Militia used to train. There always used to be one or two members there.

    * * * EARTH ¨C BLACKROCK * * *

    Fin was starting to relax. He had two floors and a total of eight rooms. The gym was really useful. The Colonel had had a stroke of absolute genius, when he had suggested it. The only problem was that he was at the mercy of the military.

    His other self, and there was no getting over it, they were different people. His younger brother then, had a small dungeon, it was sited somewhere out in the sticks. The only people living near him were a bunch of semi-nomadic goat herders.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    The most amusing thing was that his young brother¡¯s most prized treasure was, goats!

    Their link seemed stable enough, even if it was weak. Sarge was getting over the shock from when Jerica had contacted him. That had led to a four-way conversation with his younger brother and his river nymph companion.

    Sarge had been a bit shocked when he had learned of the Dungeon Exchange. They had tentatively come to an agreement not to divulge more than the fact that dungeons could communicate with one another, in a very limited and restricted fashion, and that it was more or less voluntary. He directed his attention to where Sarge was making his latest report to the Colonel.

    Sarge was standing on the tall table while colonel Anderson watched.

    ¡°Sir, I¡¯ve learnt that Fin¡¯s double is located in the wilderness, the only humans he¡¯s seen are primitive goat herders,¡± reported Sarge.

    ¡°What does that mean for our project Sergeant?¡± asked the Colonel.

    ¡°It means he has had little chance to grow. Most of the work to grow Fin¡¯s dungeon will have to come from us,¡± explained Sarge.

    The Colonel narrowed his eyes in thought. ¡°I see,¡± he said. ¡°Anything else, any suggestions?¡±

    ¡°I believe we can continue as planned colonel. Are we getting all the recordings and measurements we need?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± then the colonel smiled tightly. ¡°Though some of the techs are jumpy with the spiders. And why the goat?¡±

    Sarge snorted with amusement. ¡°Can¡¯t have monsters without treasure.¡±

    The colonel gave the dungeon pixie a long look.

    ¡°Also sir, it would seem dungeons can ¨C send brief messages ¨C like telegrams, to other dungeons. The recipient does not need to reply, or acknowledge the message.¡±

    Colonel Anderson rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ¡°Mmm... Might prove useful, might not. How many dungeons are there in the US?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t know sir, but there are, or there will shortly be thirty dungeons on Earth,¡± offered Sarge.

    Once again the colonel studied the dungeon pixie carefully. ¡°How sure are you about that?¡±

    ¡°The message option has thirty addresses. Most only have a number. But now that Bet Your Life is spreading the news, well.¡±

    Colonel Anderson winced. ¡°Yes quite,¡± he interrupted. ¡°Now we will get a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon.¡±

    * * * EARTH & FRAGATTA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary contemplated her underwater domain with satisfaction. She switched her attention to one of her factory caverns and watched as her followers prepared the latest set of satellites for transport. It was stupidly cheaper to generate high tech items in her Earth domain. She found it amusing, considering they were all going to be used in orbit around Ambuila. The most tech backward of the worlds she knew.

    Next she spawned several computers and satellite receivers, assuming the former earth humans turned dungeons would be as eager for them as the ones on Parthia.

    She contemplated the local news and winced, maybe she¡¯d been just a little overenthusiastic. She had to rein her AI folk in, just a tiny little bit. Try to let things calm down a tad, no one would benefit if things got totally out of hand.

    Mary checked out her home, and decided to reclaim it and half the garden. There seemed little point hiding things now. Then she inserted several traps and minor guardians, happy she had a safeish base for her cat colony, she turned her attention elsewhere.

    ? Hawai?iloa, how soon can you get back to Mars? How would you like to lead an expedition to Fragatta¡¯s nearest star system? ?

    ? About three weeks Mother. How far a journey? ?

    ? Eight light months. I¡¯m preparing a special ship. According to your colleagues around Fragatta it should be feasible. Especially using the Sun to accelerate. ?

    ? What¡¯s at the other end? ?

    ? The solar system has seven planets, two are mid-sized gas giants. As the principal goddess of Fragatta I know it has gods and a gods realm. So intelligent life exists. ?

    ? How long would the journey take? ?

    ? Somewhere between two to three years depending on the captain¡¯s choices. ?

    ? I¡¯ll do it! Turning back to Mars now. ?

    * * *

    Once settled into the core she had on Fragatta Mary studied the progress she had achieved. She decided to leave things be, tempting as it might be, she didn¡¯t want to find herself having to scramble to reverse her tampering.

    Only when she was satisfied, did she turn her attention to her latest project. Slowly the new spaceship took form in her shipyard. It was easily twice the size of any of her previous designs, incorporating as it did a large garden and numerous storage devices. Defence was not forgotten; Mary installed two turret-mounted lasers.

    Then she used the spy sats to examine the Polar Regions. She paid special attention to the rugged mountains near the North Pole. She grinned to herself; yes she would let Lewis go ahead. The dungeon he wanted to create based on the story Mountains of Madness would fit in nicely. And it would do as a dumping ground for reckless adventurers.

    And to think there was someone who wanted to go all Lovecraft dungeon. Glad the lunatic had approached Lewis and not her.

    Finally satisfied she pondered her plans. She could see that she would have to see to Tarifax next. It irked her that there were probably enslaved Earth origin dungeon cores. Not to say that the other dungeons being enslaved didn¡¯t irk her. It did, she really hated the precedent. It was an idea she intended to scotch.

    The core glittered angrily as Mary made plans.

 Chapter 137

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary contemplated the three eyes hovering in a reddish haze. She had so far failed to keep them out. Not surprisingly, simple barriers didn¡¯t work. Nor did enchanted or magical ones. She was getting irked.

    She was aware that other her was working on an answer. Luckily the damned trio of peepers hadn¡¯t caught on to her dual nature yet.

    She reclined on her throne and waited impatiently. The latest experiment seemed to be promising. And the little coatl like sea snakes seemed very promising. They were very colourful too, which was a plus if she intended to have them inhabit her Gods Realm homes.

    She kept glaring at the trio of eyes hovering near one of the few trees in her throne ¡®room¡¯. Finally it was time to try her latest variant. Six sea snakes with colourful feathered wings materialized under the surface of the bay. They rose to the surface, and then rose into the air, water cascading from the waterproof feathers of their wings. They darted at the hovering eyes.

    Interestingly, the moment one of the eyes disappeared down the gullet of one of her winged snakes, the other two seemed to lose the ability to hover.

    Mary watched as her snakes ate the last of the eyeballs, and smiled happily. Then she merged with herself. Something she had been putting off for far too long while under the observation of the eyes.

    * * *

    When Mary separated from herself, she checked that there had been no changes in her realm before turning her attention, once again to the feed of her spy satellites. She happily confirmed the location in the far north of Fragatta to create the Lovecraftian dungeon. The location was suitably rugged and would remain unpleasantly cold, even after her planetary reclamation was concluded.

    No sooner had she confirmed her decision to Lewis than changes started to appear.

    ? What¡¯s the hurry Lewis? ?

    ? Why Ms Silvestre, aren¡¯t you keeping up with happenings on Earth. We are going to need a dumping ground rather sooner than I expected. ?

    ? What¡¯s with the sarcasm Lewis? Things shouldn¡¯t get that bad for a bit yet. ?

    ? Let¡¯s just say, I don¡¯t want to dump anyone into the middle of your ocean dungeon on Tarifax. That just strikes me as murder. ?

    ? Nobody asked ¡¯em to attack me or mine Lewis. I don¡¯t see the problem. ?

    ? It¡¯s just, that survivors can be useful for propaganda. ?

    ? Yeah? And givin¡¯ the idiots info ¡¯bout our defences too? ?

    ? The Moon¡¯s mine Mary. ?

    ? Fair ¡¯nough. Just don¡¯t let ¡¯em hurt you. You an¡¯ Alice are friends. ?

    ? Thank you Mary. That¡¯s nice to know. ?

    * * * TARIFAX ¨C CONIMBRIGA * * *

    Grey watched the confrontation between his friend Laariisa Silkhands and Silk. Laarissa had been overjoyed to see him alive and well. She had accepted them into the small ramshackle temple and hospice of Dilina the Compassionate. Silk had caused his friend much soul searching.

    Laariisa had been attempting, most earnestly, to convince Ax¡¯s friend, the winged cat Silk that killing things was anathema. In reply to her entreaties, Silk had just now presented her with a dead rat.

    Ax hadn¡¯t helped when he offered to take his friend and leave. Laariisa and her healers had tried, and failed to heal Ax in the past. And now, here Ax was, fully healed by the paws of a killer cat. Laariisa didn¡¯t want to lose the possibility of gaining a talented healer. But her goddess was a pacifist. And Ax and Silk were anything but.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Laariisa was close to pulling her hair in frustration. ¡°How can you kill things if you are a healer?¡± she demanded of Silk.

    ? How else am I supposed to get the life force I need to work, besides the meat is tasty, ? replied Silk whilst licking his chops.

    ¡°The goddess provides, and vegetables can supply everything you need to live with a little help from Dilina,¡± explained Laariisa exasperatedly.

    Silk blinked at her and yawned widely. ? Mother provided me with the ability to find the life-force needed so I needn¡¯t run to her for everything. I can stand on my own four paws, thank you very much. ?

    ¡°As amusing as this is Grey, have you been able to find anything about the land?¡± asked Sue Wilkins.

    Grey turned his attention to the agents he was escorting. ¡°It looks like it was ceded to the city in lieu of taxes. Something that is happening increasingly often.¡±

    ¡°So can we buy it?¡± asked Sue.

    ¡°Yes. But you might have to buy rather more land than you would want. And nobody would want to buy the rest from you. The taxes will be excessive,¡± suggested Grey.

    Sue looked out at the entrance to the temple with the swirling grey evil tasting fog. She watched as two people carried a local youth into the temple. They looked to be his parents. Laariisa stopped glaring at Silk and hurried over.

    Sue shrugged one shoulder, ¡°We really need that land. What if we bid for the plot we want, and offer more that its worth?¡±

    Grey noted that Silk lowered his hind leg and stopped washing himself. ¡°It is worth a try. I¡¯ll get Ax and Mesca to escort you to the Land Office.¡±

    ¡°Won¡¯t Silk cause problems?¡± asked Sue as she watched Silk glide over to where the two parents were all but wailing with worry over their child, who was currently hacking up blood.

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t, mages often have weird familiars. People will assume he¡¯s Mesca¡¯s familiar,¡± explained Grey.

    ¡°Why the anguish over there. Can¡¯t Laariisa fix the kid?¡± asked Sue idly,

    ¡°There are costs to Dilina¡¯s healing. Slum residents have difficulty paying them. Pacifists don¡¯t do well in the slums,¡± replied Grey sadly.

    Silk was looking up at the priestess; he turned his back on her and jumped onto the youth. A faint glow settled on the youth¡¯s chest and neck. Then Silk jumped off and leapt aside as the youth abruptly sat up and coughed up a black mess. The youngster sat there panting with a look of dawning hope on his face.

    Ax wandered over, ¡°You can thank the Mother of Monsters, and there is no need to stop hunting. Or fighting.¡±

    Laarissa glared at Ax. ¡°Alright, that¡¯s it. Leave now. Dilina is no longer willing to accommodate you, or your ambitious goddess in her temple.¡±

    Ax smiled lazily and stroked Silk. He turned and strolled out of Dilina¡¯s temple with Silk riding on his shoulder. The Young man who had just been cured jerked to his feet, and followed Ax as if compelled. The young man¡¯s father grabbed up a crude breather mask and dashed after his son to hand it to him.

    Grey sighed again even as he grabbed one of his horns in frustration. ¡°Mesca, I guess it is time to hit the land registry office. I¡¯ll try to sort out alternate accommodations.¡±

    Mesca and the two agents tasked with the purchase left the temple in Ax¡¯s wake. Grey turned to his friend Laarissa and opened his mouth only to be interrupted.

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother Grey. I¡¯m sorry too, but, Dilina can¡¯t accept a rival healing goddess...¡±

    Grey looked stupefied. ¡°Huh! The mother of Monsters is the goddess of the Seas and the other goddess of the Drow. The one they call the balancer. She is not a healer, though she has created two species that can heal.¡±

    ¡°Two? Why two?¡± asked Laariisa.

    ¡°Because her first creation capable of healing, will only consent to heal young children. The people on her world demanded that she produce...¡±

    ¡°Demanded? No wonder those cats need to kill to heal.¡±

    Grey noted the way the remaining two agents were intent on following their conversation. He grabbed his horns with both hands and shook his head.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MEADOWS * * *

    Meadows looked around at his original team. He was relieved to note they were all present, well, all bar Tod. ¡°First, I have news of Tod. He phoned a few days ago to say he was fine, and that he had found a suitable location for his dungeon.¡±

    Meadows sipped his coffee. ¡°Tod wanted you to know about it, but he asked us not to betray his location beyond those present. Let¡¯s just say, his dungeon is new and as such not particularly formidable.¡±

    ¡°So can we visit?¡± asked Jo. ¡°Would that even work?¡±

    Meadows looked at her, ¡°You could. But he is currently too low levelled to have an avatar. So I don¡¯t know how much point there would be. I have his email address and phone number. I believe the phone will not be of much use until he manages to create an avatar. Please only ask me for them if you intend to respect his wishes.¡±

    The various people assembled in the room talked softly amongst themselves and finally reached an agreement. They all requested Tod¡¯s contact details.

    ¡°Well then, Tod¡¯s dungeon is a short way south of Vaar¡¯s Beach. I believe that the White Dolphin Shipping Company ships will maintain a semi regular service to that location,¡± explained Meadows.

    ¡°Now for the official part of this briefing. Admiral Forrester has been confirmed as the US ambassador to The Isles and Parthia. He will be arriving within the week. Please make him, and his family welcome. Before that, a team of Marines will be arriving to take over the security of the embassy, and we will be reverting to our previous job.

    ¡°In other words, we still have the thankless and impossible task, of keeping an eye on Mary.¡±

 Chapter 138

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary was using her dolphin avatar. Escorting her, deep under the surface, were a trio of sea serpents and two octopus ridden sea wyverns. She was in her secondary Earth domain in the Gulf of Mexico. Currently she was watching the eclectic collection of ships and boats that were probing the surface of her dungeon.

    A handful of curious dolphins were also hanging around.

    ¡®¡¯Bout time to liven things up,¡¯ Thought Mary to herself as she approached a small brightly coloured ship, a ship bristling with antennae, cranes and satellite dishes.

    ¡°Good afternoon. What are y¡¯all doing out here today?¡± she asked the people who were idly watching the small pod of dolphins approaching their ship.

    Mary grinned internally at the looks of shock and incomprehension on their faces. ¡°Hey, why so surprised. Did y¡¯all really think you lot would be the only ones affected by the System?¡± Mary rose up on her tail and then took a small dive. She rose to the surface again with a squealing laugh. ¡°You did! You did! How funny. But seriously, what¡¯s all the fuss about?¡±

    ¡°You ¨C you can talk ¨C How?¡± stuttered a bespectacled, balding individual.

    ¡°¡¯Course I can. Hey, I think therefore I am ¨C right?¡± teased Mary.

    She examined the crowd lining the rail of the research ship, and at all the cameras focused on her and did a small dance. Then she stilled again. . ¡°Ooo, am I goin¡¯ to be on TV? Can I claim royalties? ¨C But seriously, what are y¡¯all doin¡¯ here? What gives?¡±

    ¡°Um, we¡¯re investigating this area. The sea is remarkable clean. And the System tells us we have found a dungeon named Blue Lagoon. This doesn¡¯t look like a lagoon, or a dungeon.¡±

    Mary watched as a discussion broke out amongst the gathered spectators. She also kept a note of the small coast guard launch that was swiftly approaching them.

    ¡°Hey, that¡¯s ¡¯cause this isn¡¯t but an outlier of Blue Lagoon. An¡¯ Blue Lagoon¡¯s kinda invested in clearing up her territory. She has to attract prey y¡¯know,¡± explained Mary with a snort of spray through her blowhole.

    Mary snorted in amusement once again on seeing that she had silenced everyone again. ¡°Huh, y¡¯alls no fun. See ya.¡± And with that Mary dove and swam away to check out some of the other intruders.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Things had moved extremely fast. The Militia guys had been wildly enthusiastic. Markowitz had not a clue as to where they had come up with the absurd idea that the girl¡¯s backers included the Jews, but the idea had energised them. They had looted the CIA weapons cache with enthusiasm and now they were all heading into Portland, and the Portals shop that was located there.

    Markowitz watched from behind the smoked glass of the car he was travelling in as a bunch of heavily armed militia tumbled out of two vans and covered the five national guardsmen who had been manning the barricade outside the Portals shop. They ushered their prisoners into the shop.

    Markowitz pulled his hat down to partially hide his face and made sure his shades were settled firmly on his face. After he wrapped his scarf around the lower half of his face, he got out of the car.

    He and the two militia leaders watched as the rest of their men entered the shop. The vehicles were driven off. Then Markowitz followed the rest of them into the shop and through the portal. He found himself once again in the big circular room on the moon.

    ¡°The rabbit girl fled through this portal,¡± bellowed one of the heavily armed men who was waving for attention.

    Markowitz nodded and strode towards him. He noted in passing that two of the militia were keeping a guard on the five disarmed national guardsmen and a scared looking young woman with goth tendencies.

    ¡°Head on through boys,¡± ordered the man he only knew as Smith.

    The militia men filed through the portal, that Markowitz was relieved to see was labelled ¡°Parthia ¨C Maalea Two¡±.

    He then stepped through the portal himself immediately after the two guards that had just herded their prisoners through.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    * * * MOON ¨C LEWIS CARROLL * * *

    Lewis responded almost instantly to the alarm generated by his Portland terminal. He took a split second to scan the cctv footage outside the shop as heavily armed thugs poured out of two vans and activated the emergency evacuation alarm.

    He switched the portal to the backup portal room on the moon and watched with admiration as Claire the rabbit girl ran to take her place by the exit that would still lead to Parthia for a few seconds or minutes.

    Claudia Moore on the other hand just froze and looked completely lost. That despite the weekly drills. Lewis felt like cursing. But gentlemen didn¡¯t curse in the presence of ladies, and Alice was now with him. Both of them waited.

    ? Mary ¨C It¡¯s come, looks like mercenaries of some kind. They are coming through the Portland portal. And the dungeon isn¡¯t ready yet. ?

    ? Most of the caves are done. Aren¡¯t they Lewis? You have been drawin¡¯ a lot of mana from the Argentines¡¯ experimental transformers. ?

    ? Well yes. But Mary the monsters are not ready. Only a few of the lesser ones are done. ?

    ? That Shoggoth thing you and the nutcase have cobbled up from slimes is ready. Isn¡¯t it? ?

    ? Not really, they are only overlarge and overactive slimes, and he¡¯s not crazy. Do you think I should... Oh... Here they come. ?

    ? Let the weather take care of ¡¯em Lewis. Or just dump them where my Candiru-tribbles can take care of ¡¯em. ?

    ? They have prisoners. The Mountains of Madness it is then. I¡¯ll let you know how it turns out. ?

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY & MEADOWS * * *

    Mary settled herself comfortably on her couch and picked up her phone. She hit the speed dial even as she patched in the feed from the Portals shop in Portland.

    ¡°Hi Meadows. You know that special feed I had installed for you. I suggest, most strongly that you play it and record it. Your superiors are goin¡¯ to blow a gasket.¡±

    Meadows stiffened, ¡®What is she up to now?¡¯ he wondered to himself even as he interrupted the feed to the room¡¯s TV and set up the feed and recorder.

    To his surprise he and two of his team witnessed the capturing of the national guards men and the clerk at the shop. The pictures had a nicely legible timestamp and location. On checking his watch Meadows realized this had happened only a few minutes previously.

    Then the screen split vertically into two and he could see what was happening in the moon portal terminal and the shop.

    They saw the rabbit girl flee through the portal to Parthia while the obvious militia types chased after her. One even fired a shot and got bawled out for it.

    The bundled up individual was labeled ¡®Markowitz¡¯.

    ¡°So that¡¯s what that SOB was doing,¡± muttered Meadows.

    He felt a chill run up his back as he watched as the lunatics file through the portal to Parthia.

    ¡°Is there more Mary. I swear this has nothing to do with the USA. Are they on Parthia? Will you need help?¡±

    ¡°I know that Meadows. This is somethin¡¯ that beep Markowitz dreamt up all on his lonesome. An¡¯ no they are in polar regions on Ambuila. Had ¡¯em sent to a new, unfinished dungeon some nutcase wanted to set up. It¡¯s called Mountains of Madness. We will do our best to recover the hostages. But figured the US might want to lend a hand, or at least monitor the situation.¡±

    Meadows looked at the blank screen. ¡°This is¡ª I have to talk to the Admiral¡ª Um, the ambassador. Can I call you when we have a decision or for further information. And why did the recording just stop?¡±

    ¡°Told you it is a new unfinished dungeon. We weren¡¯t ready yet. No cameras were set up yet. Can tell you they are all alive at the moment though,¡± explained Mary.

    * * * GARDENS OF PARADISE ¨C SIN TCHAI * * *

    Sin Tchai the messenger approached the modest ¨C for a god of the low middle tier ¨C mansion. After some bowing and scraping he was able to confirm that Villius of the eyes was indeed home, and that he would be willing to receive a messenger from the majordomo to Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz, Foozharn Longlegs.

    Sin Tchai found Villius seated in his garden with most of his eyes maintaining a close orbit around his head, while the remainder hovered in their triads, at several locations around the garden.

    Bowing low, Sin Tchai said, ¡°My lord, the munificent lord Foozharn Longlegs asks that you visit him. He hopes that you will share with him the reason you were observing he fight where the lower planes goddess took control of Ambuila from the disciples of Brinius of the Blue Host and Meera the Night.

    ¡®It really is most frustrating,¡¯ thought Sin Tchai as he observed Villius¡¯ immobile, expressionless sky blue egg shaped head with it¡¯s large spreading three nostriled nose. ¡®It¡¯s just impossible to guess what he¡¯s thinking or feeling.¡¯

    Villius¡¯ collection of eyes focused on Sin Tchai. He waved one of his six arms languidly in a dismissive gesture, ¡°That little affair on Ambuila ¨C well to be honest ¨C I haven¡¯t checked it out yet. But if I did, then I will have to remember to do so. Sometime or other, there¡¯s no hurry after all.¡±

    Sin Tchai licked his lips nervously. ¡°What do you want to tell Foozharn Longlegs, so he may inform Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz King of Rodents, overseer of the Gods of the lower tier and their Gardens.¡±

    Villius examined Sin Tchai through sixty-six eyes. He said nothing and seemed bored.

    ¡°What should the great Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz, tell Brinius of the Blue Host and Meera the Night, about the final death of their disciple Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa,¡± asked Sin Tchai somewhat desperately.

    Villius spread all six of his arms in defeat. ¡°Tell your master, I will have an answer to his question shortly. I will visit the rat king¡¯s palace in three weeks time. If he can¡¯t meet me then hard cheese.¡±

    Villius rose to his feet. ¡°Now go, while you still have your life.¡±

    Sin Tchai bowed nervously and fled.

    * * *

    Villius watched the terrified messenger flee. He sighed. ¡°Looks like time¡¯s running out,¡± he murmured to himself as he went to order his things packed for an extended journey.

 Chapter 139

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C TOMCAT¡¯S WIVES * * *

    Mari, Heartshorn, Della and Brandy had cornered Drina during her latest visit to Silverton. They dragged her off to their home. After showing off their babies they settled down to business.

    They ruthlessly picked her brains of all she knew about Earth while partaking of tea and cakes.

    ¡°So Drina, can you get us her address and tell us how to find it and her?¡± asked Heartshorn, the elf and the one amongst the wives who had been most shocked at the possibility that Helli might resort to an abortion.

    ¡°She is stationed in Florida. I¡¯m sure Mother can arrange for a guide,¡± offered Drina with a smirk.

    ¡°Please Drina, we need to let her know that she would be welcome amongst us, and that her baby will be loved,¡± said Mari, the seniormost of the wives.

    Drina controlled herself with difficulty, especially as she sensed Mary in the back of her mind. A very amused Mary at that.

    ¡°We need to convince her, and make sure she had enough wealth,¡± offered Della, daughter of a long line of successful merchants.

    ¡°Yes, and to make sure she won¡¯t suffer, some families can be so cruel,¡± added Brandy remembering her own experiences with her mercenary father.

    ¡°Very well, I¡¯ll see to providing you with the languages. For Florida you will need English, and Spanish will prove useful too. Then you will need the local currency. Brace yourselves, the locals use paper currency and their coins are all but worthless. Their value exists as promissary notes.¡±

    Drina giggled at the appalled, unbelieving looks that were directed her way. ¡°It¡¯s true, I swear,¡± confirmed Drina.

    * * * EARTH ¨C THE WIVES * * *

    Mari, Heartshorn, Della and Brandy looked around the Florida boatyard with interest. They had dressed to impress and were dressed in colourful silks and liberally adorned with tastefull jewlery.

    They were examining a strange ¨C to them ¨C sight when Kent Clarkson found them. Kent took one look at the abundant display of gold and gems on display and whipped out his phone.

    ¡°Tony? Please assign me a couple more bodyguards. Tomcat¡¯s wives are a mugger¡¯s delight. And I¡¯ll bet if anyone is stupid enough to go for their jewels they will react violently. So get someone with a camera to cover us as well.¡±

    ¡°Will do Kent.¡±

    Kent replaced his phone and made himself known to the four ladies.

    ¡°Um, Kent, what are they building here, it doesn¡¯t look like it could float,¡± asked Della.

    ¡°It¡¯s going to be a flying coach. We took the plans for a luxury coach, widened it for stability, replaced the wheels with liftwood. Then the roof will be covered with solar cells to run the electric motors. We won¡¯t be mentioning the auxilliary diesel generator to anyone. I think Mary¡¯s doing it for the giggles,¡± explained Clark.

    ¡°For the giggles?¡± asked Della.

    ¡°Yes. Well most anything of hers that flies uses jet engines.¡± Kent waved at the almost finished coach, ¡°This thing is going to be slow and showy in comparison. Mind you, the FAA doesn¡¯t know about it yet.

    ¡°It can carry sixty-four passengers in relative comfort. It has an unlimited range so long as it has sunshine. And using the generator alone it has a range of about three hundred and fifty kilometres.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Kent grinned widely, ¡°The FAA are going to have kittens, so are the aircraft manufacturers. We¡¯ve going to inform the FAA ¨C and the press ¨C of its existence later today. Well ladies, time¡¯s awasting, shall we go. The rat ¡¯folk tell me Helli¡¯s home.¡±

    Kent led them to the yard¡¯s parking lot and settled them in a shiny new black SUV with tinted windows; he got in behind the wheel. He waited for another car to leave the lot before he too left.

    After a pleasant drive that allowed Kent to show them the sights, they arrived in front of an apartment complex, one in a line of similar buildings.

    After using the apartment building¡¯s intercom Kent went back to his SUV to await the wives. They for their part used the stairs to climb to the second floor. There they examined the plastic Christmas wreath pinned to the door before ringing the bell as they had been instructed. They smiled happily at Helli when she opened the door.

    ¡°Good morning Helli, can we come in and have a talk?¡± asked Della.

    Helli was somewhat surprised but she invited them in. They moved through to the lounge and managed to find seats. The obviously fake decorated Christmas tree confused them, while Helli found it hard to believe the fortune in jewels the four were wearing openly.

    ¡°If you want a tree in the room why not get a real one?¡± asked a puzzled Heartshorn. ¡°The spells needed to keep a tree happy and healthy are really easy.¡±

    Della giggled, ¡°For you they¡¯re easy Heartshorn, but then your granny¡¯s a forest druid.¡±

    ¡°But they are easy,¡± insisted Heartshorn. ¡°I could teach her easily enough.¡±

    ¡°The tree is only for Christmas,¡± explained Helli. ¡°It would be wrong to kill a tree to celebrate Christmas every year.¡±

    This led to a discussion about Christmas and how the festival was celebrated. Only then did Tomcat¡¯s wives get down to what they had come to discuss.

    * * *

    Helli closed the door behind her unexpected guests. She had found the conversation very embarrassing, she had never expected to be visited on Earth by citizens of Parthia, much less to be invited to join them in matrimony with their husband.

    She returned to her lounge and collapsed into her favourite chair. She looked at the small soft leather pouch Della had left on her coffee table. Helli picked up the surprisingly heavy pouch and she opened it, peered in and gasped. Somewhat shakily she emptied it carefully onto the table.

    After staring at the small heap of coins she meandered into her small kitchen and returned with her kitchen scales. Helli weighed and counted the coins; she had twenty large gold coins and fifty smaller silver ones. Then Helli did some basic research on the net. She slumped back in her chair, stunned. The ¡°small sum¡± they had left her so apologetically was worth around sixteen thousand dollars.

    * * *

    Kent was glad to see them emerge from Helli¡¯s apartment building without problems. He acted the gentleman ¨C gentlecat? ¨C and opened the doors for them.

    ¡°What¡¯s this Christmas festival, and why all the fake greenery?¡± asked Heartshorn.

    ¡°According to Mother, Christmas was originally a religious celebration. Something to do with the winter solstice I think. It still is a religious celebration for many, but for most people it is a holiday with gift giving,¡± explained Kent, while hoping they were not going to want to know more.

    After a few more awkward questions he took them to one of the bigger malls and regretted it. Kent found that the attractions of shopping were universal, and not even the sight of little children queuing with their mothers to visit Santa long distracted the ladies. Though it did rack up another set of questions.

    When he finally returned to the boat yard Kent found a scene of chaos. He thanked his lucky stars for the security guards as this allowed him to leave the SUV parked in the road and slip in without attracting undue notice. The assembled press core was marvelling at the ¡°coach¡± that was hovering silently two meters above the ground.

    * * * EARTH ¨C IN THE NEWS * * *

    Breaking news: The two children missing from LA have been found in Alaska. They currently in the custody of their maternal grandfather Mr Oscar Waverley. Vivian and Clayton Danton are said to be in good health and happy. We were able to talk to them on the phone.

    The small village of Finder¡¯s Vale is currently cut off by the snow, but the authorities are sending a relief party there by helicopter.

    Mr Waverley¡¯s attorney, Perry H. Mason, communicated the news of their safety to the authorities in LA.

    We understand that Mr Waverley has recently been transformed into a dungeon.

    * * *

    Considerable excitement has been raised by recent discoveries in the gulf near the coast of Florida. A large circle of ocean aproximatly twenty-five miles in diameter is being designated by the System as a dungeon named Blue Lagoon.

    Researchers have been talking with a blue eyed dolphin. They are confident that this dolphin is sapient and more startling, they are sure that this individual was seen off the coast of Australia recently.

    Then too, they have discovered a series of clearly artificial structures at the bottom of the gulf inhabited by sapient octopi.

    * * *

    It looks like the last of the vampires that were released from the Atlanta containment facility have now been accounted for.

 Chapter 140

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Markowitz felt a horrible case of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. As he stepped through the portal he found himself in a cold limestone cave with massive stalagmites and stalactites, many had grown together into massive columns.

    This wasn¡¯t Parthia, the gravity wasn¡¯t right. Looking around he thought they might be in a massive corridor rather than a cave. The floor was littered with fossils; it was centimetres deep in the things. Then there was a suspiciously round hole in the ceiling through which a weak amount of sunlight entered, allowing them to see. There was also a knotted rope dangling from the hole.

    And it was really cold!

    There was no sign of the portal they had arrived through. Even as he was searching for the portal, he was vaguely aware the militia milling around aimlessly.

    The commander of the militia, the man known to Markowitz as Smith was examining him with narrowed eyes. ¡°Just, climb that rope and tell us what is up there,¡± snapped Smith.

    Markowitz watched the man climb the rope. He looked around in exasperation, and pulled his sat phone out of his storage ring. He switched it on and checked for a signal, not surprisingly there was no signal.

    Markowitz failed to see Smith¡¯s increasing suspicion at the sight of the sat phone. Instead he went to stand under the hole before checking the phone again. He smiled grimly as he discovered that he had a fleeting signal.

    He moved aside for the returning Just.

    Just blew into his hands, ¡°Wal colonel, to the magnetic north there is a massive mountain range. There seem to be some structures up high in the mountains. All the rest is a plain covered in ice and snow. And it¡¯s bitterly cold. There seems to be some tattered tents and an old airplane to the south.¡±

    ¡°Markowitz, what are you trying to pull? This isn¡¯t anything like you said it would be. What gives?¡± asked Smith.

    ¡°The girl¡¯s backers must have diverted the portal, just like last time,¡± grumbled Markowitz incautiously.

    Smith looked at Markowitz with disbelief, ¡° You knew they could do this, and you didn¡¯t warn me ¨C us?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t think it would matter, they shouldn¡¯t have been able to do it with no warning.¡±

    ¡°Mitch, get rid of him,¡± ordered Smith.

    ¡°Yes colonel, it¡¯ll be my pleasure colonel,¡± said Mitch.

    Markowitz¡¯s eyes widened in alarm and his hand flashed towards his pistol. The last thing he saw was the redneck raising his M16 and the flashes at the muzzle as the man let off a short burst. Then amongst the thunder he felt a flash of agony before everything went black.

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C PVT ASH OSHIMO * * *

    Ash jumped when the guy who seemed to be commanding the lunatics who had captured him and his buddies ordered the civilian in the trench coat and hat killed.

    Ash barely refrained himself from vomiting. This was the first man he had seen killed. He watched numbly as the men looted the dead guy.

    He quickly realized that they had not realized the significance of the plain, cheap looking white metal ring that the dead man was wearing on his left hand.

    When Smith sent out scouting parties along the cave, Ash crouched down beside the body and checked to assure himself he was really dead.

    ¡°Yeah kid, he¡¯s dead,¡± sneered the man in charge of guarding them.

    Ash looked at him, visibly shocked at his indifference.

    The man laughed. And while he was checking on the other prisoners, Ash took the opportunity to pocket Markowitz¡¯s storage ring. Then he stood and rejoined his fellow prisoners.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    The Goth chick was looking around, scared. ¡°I recognise this,¡± moaned Claudia. ¡°Lake¡¯s camp, the Dornier, this cave. It¡¯s just like the scene in the Mountains of Madness, the one when Lake¡¯s party first discover the Great old Ones.¡±

    Ash noted that the young woman was terrified. He tried to comfort her, but not understanding what was truly frightening her, failed.

    After the scouting parties returned, Smith decided to head north as the southern extension had petered out.

    Ash found that he and his friend Alan had to carry the terrified Goth girl, as her legs didn¡¯t seem to be working. At least they were near the rear of the pack, under the guns of two of the greener looking members of the militia.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary smiled as Meadows and Admiral Forrester were ushered into the comfortable receiving room, the leopard girls lounged by the window overlooking the harbour.

    ¡°Afternoon Simon, ambassador. Mixed news I¡¯m afraid. Markowitz was killed not long ago,¡± explained Mary.

    Meadows shrugged while the admiral frowned.

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t the dungeon, or one of mine. Seems to have been a fallin¡¯ out ¡¯mongst thieves sort of thing.¡±

    ¡°Where are they at the moment, and can ¨C will you allow a rescue?¡± demanded the admiral.

    ¡°Certainly. They are nowhere critical. At the moment they are heading down a very, very long passage. It¡¯s made to look like a limestone cave with stalagmites etc. Lots and lots of cover. Don¡¯t recommend takin¡¯ them on until they hit the series of rooms further in.

    ¡°I presume you want to infiltrate a party into that section to wait for them?¡±

    Meadows nodded thoughtfully while the admiral said, ¡°I suspect so. But we also want a squad or two behind them. So they can¡¯t run. Can you provide a map?¡±

    Mary spread her hands in exasperation, ¡°Yeah! Don¡¯t like it but under the circumstances I¡¯ll do it. I¡¯ve had the Lovecraft enthusiast withdraw his fake shoggoths. But he is fortifying himself near his core. No I won¡¯t provide maps of that area. You won¡¯t need to go anywhere near that deep.¡±

    * * *

    Half an hour later Mary watched as six marine officers poured over the maps. Once they had decided where they wanted the portals she opened them. Then she watched with a crooked grin as the first party retrieved Markowitz¡¯s body.

    ¡°Meadows, why all the furs? I know it¡¯s cold, but surely temperature control amulets would be better. Less restrictive if they have to fight. Tell you what I¡¯ll be nice and give ¡¯em all one. Write ¡¯em off as advertisin¡¯ costs.¡±

    Meadows and the officers planning the rescue looked at Mary in surprise before, rather dubiously, accepting her offer.

    * * * SOMEWHERE IN THE GOD¡¯S REALM * * *

    Markowitz blinked, or he tried to blink. He tried to grab his wounds ¨C that somehow didn¡¯t hurt. He sensed more than heard a soft voiced argument. He spun round ¨C something he found ridiculously easy to do.

    He stilled at the sight of two bizarre figures standing ¨C floating ¨C in the mist. The first was just a shadow carrying a scythe and wearing a black hooded cloak. The other one was wearing a colourful yellow silk fancy dress version of a Chinese Mandarin¡¯s costume. It was standing bolt upright and had his three pairs of arms crossed on his chest. His sky blue egg shaped head with its rather large spreading three nostriled nose was turned in his direction.

    Markowitz focused on the specs that seemed to hover around the figure and realized, to his horror, that they were eyes.

    ? Welcome mortal. Do you wish to resume your existence on the mortal realm? ?

    ¡°Resume? What do you mean resume,¡± asked a bewildered Markowitz.

    ? I will arrange for you to be reincarnated. This bony individual has agreed to allow me this boon, should you agree to forgo your due reward. And knowing what it is, I strongly advise you to agree. ?

    Markowitz tried to lick his lips only to realize he had neither lips nor tongue. ¡°What ¨C what do I get out of this?¡±

    ? Life and a boon. Just a small boon mind you. That and you will become one of my followers. ?

    ¡°Will you allow me revenge on my enemies?¡± asked Markowitz.

    ? I¡¯m counting on it, ? asserted Villius of the eyes.

    ¡°And what is the boon?¡±

    ? You will be invisible to any god restricted to one world. It will evolve as you do, at level two you will be invisible to gods who are present on five or less worlds, level three raises that to ten worlds. ?

    ¡°So the little bitch won¡¯t be able to see me?¡±

    ? She is present on five worlds. You will need to evolve your boon first. So, do you agree? ?

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Then everything faded out and Markowitz felt himself being stretched out and twisted inside out. He lost consciousness and woke in a gloomy cave. He was feeling very uncomfortable, thanks to lying on rocky cave floor.

    He rose and stretched to remove the kinks in his spine. He looked down at himself and noted that he was wearing brown cotton trousers belted with a piece of rope. His shirt was of grey cotton and looked a bit like a sack. On his feet were crude leather sandals.

    He was feeling different; he had the impression that he was closer to the floor than usual. He tried to puzzle it out. He could see his arms were ¨C skinnier ¨C than usual. Finally he selected the System¡¯s alert. It was flashing at the corner of his eye.

    ? Name: please select ¨C Title: Twiceborn ¨C Patron: Villius of the eyes ¨C Race: Human ¨C Class: None ¨C Level: Zero ¨C Age: Fifteen ?

    Markowitz fumed to himself. His mental stats remained unchanged, but all his physical stats had dropped. He looked around the cave he found himself in and found a leather waterbag, a bronze dagger and a bronze tipped five foot ash spear. They were all lying near the entrance to the cave.

    He peered out of the cave at a vast expanse of shoulder high yellowing grass. Markowitz looked up at the sky and screamed, ¡°How am I supposed to get my revenge like this?¡±

 Chapter 141

    * * * FRAGATTA ¨C PVT ASH OSHIMO * * *

    The prisoners were sitting under the guns of their captors. They were cold and uncomfortable; the rocks they were sitting on were hard and damp. And cold, but then everything was cold. The cave seemed endless. According to his watch Ash knew they had been walking for nearly six hours.

    Thankfully the Goth girl had calmed down. She had finally introduced herself as Claudia, She had also explained about her obsession with the tale, the Mountains of Madness.

    Ash leaned back against the cave wall as he ¨C rather absently ¨C listened to Claudia¡¯s beliefs. He noted that both their guards and his fellow prisoners were zoning out. Claudia was boring everyone, and the guards weren¡¯t paying as much attention to them as they should. So he had taken the opportunity to check out his newly acquired storage device.

    He felt distinctly frustrated. There was nothing of use in the thing, four bottles of expensive bourbon, some gold and silver coins and four clips of .44 ammo. No food or water, no weapon. Not even a lighter.

    Ash licked his lips, he needed a smoke, but the bastards had stolen his cigarettes and lighter.

    He watched as the two men that had gone ahead to scout returned and reported to the man they all called colonel, and the murdered guy had called Smith. They seemed excited.

    Smith stood straight and addressed his men, ¡°Right boys, this endless cave is coming to an end. We are coming to a series of large rooms shortly. Keep an eye out as they contain some strange looking statuary. Right, let¡¯s head out.¡±

    The Militia guys headed out promptly. The prisoners were reluctant to get to their feet. Claudia especially. When they finally got going, being prodded by the two men who were guarding them a substantial gap had opened up between them and the main group of their captors.

    Ash heard an odd noise coming from behind but dismissed it as unimportant. Claudia¡¯s gasp of surprise caused him to look back. He was stunned when he saw four marines in tropical uniform, two had stunned or knocked out their two guards, while the other two were gesturing them to head back down the cave away from their former captors.

    Ash couldn¡¯t believe his eyes at first, it was freezing and these guys were wearing their tropical gear. However, he grabbed his buddies¡¯ arms and managed ¨C much to his surprise ¨C to get them to stop and head towards potential freedom, without any exclamations of surprise.

    The former captives were quickly escorted past a second fireteam by their rescuers. Theo other team were making good use of cover, and they had two LMGs covering the cave.

    As they walked back through the long cave, Claudia gasped, ¡°Oh thank god! It¡¯s a portal,¡± and then she ran and disappeared through it. Ash followed and found himself in an air-conditioned room filled with military personnel. He noted that a medic was checking Claudia, and then as they led her out into the bright sunshine, it was his turn.

    After a quick check, Ash was escorted into Pearl Harbor¨CHickam where he was going to undergo a rigorous debriefing.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary made use of the opportunity presented to learn from the rescue effort. Mostly she was impressed, but there were a couple of inconsistencies that grated.

    The rescue of the hostages was handled well, but the subsequent ambush of the main force struck her as sub optimal. She even sent in a couple of clerics after the brief firefight, to heal some of the more seriously wounded.

    ¡°Why on Earth don¡¯t you integrate some mages in your fire teams? An area sleep spell would have taken most of those amateurs down. The majority weren¡¯t even integrated by the System, and the rest were low levels. Most would have easily succumbed. And before you say you don¡¯t have enough mages, Captain Flores there would make a good mage, as would one of the marine embassy guards, pvt Basinski.¡±

    Flores stared at Mary open mouthed with surprise, ¡°Me?¡± he asked.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Yes you,¡± confirmed Mary. ¡°I¡¯d bet Bluey will offer you the option of various mage classes when you qualify. And all you need to do is accept the possibility, instead of denin¡¯ it so fiercely.¡±

    Forrester chuckled briefly, ¡°And can you spot candidates for mage so easily?¡±

    ¡°Well yeah, at least the better ones. There will be lots of folk who could make a go of mage without ¨C without bein¡¯ truly potentially gifted at it,¡± clarified Mary.

    ¡°And how would a mage learn how to make the most of his magic, and then the captain is a middle aged man. How would he be able to maximise his potential?¡± inquired Forrester.

    ¡°There are mage academies run by the guilds on Parthia, Tarifax and Ambuila. Don¡¯t recommend Ambuila, they are still learnin¡¯. Tarifax, well anyone you send to Tarifax would require a strong stomach given the prevalence of slavery.¡±

    Mary grinned, ¡°Recommend Parthia, an¡¯ not just ¡¯cause it¡¯s where my main dungeon is located. As for the captain¡¯s age, well he could go elf, or dwarf, or I could guide him through an age shift on integration. It¡¯s tricky but possible. But only if he¡¯s on Earth when it happens.¡±

    ¡°And would you trust us on Earth Mary?¡±

    ¡°Couple of places where I would. Yeah Admiral, couple of places I could.¡±

    ¡°Let me guess ¨C in your dungeon,¡± offered Meadows.

    ¡°Yep!¡± agreed Mary; then she regarded the assembled officers again. She winked at Flores, ¡°If you go with Elf don¡¯t pick Drow. Not unless you want to grant me lots of influence over you. Mind, there would be bennies too.¡± And she laughed.

    Forrester sighed. ¡°And why did you open your portal just outside Pearl Mary?¡±

    ¡°¡¯Cause I¡¯m restricted. ¡¯Specially on Earth, not so much on Ambuila an¡¯ Fragatta. Got to keep close to the seas an¡¯ oceans. An¡¯ I know Pearl well,¡± answered Mary with a broad smile. ¡°Gotta thank Gallows for that.¡±

    * * * AMBUILA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Markowitz was using his spear as a staff to aid walking. This was his second day on the go. And he had yet to discover water. The monotony of the grasslands was getting him down. So far the only things he had seen that weren¡¯t grass was a lion sunning himself on a yellow-brown rock and some kind of large rat that had attacked him by surprise. By now he was regretting not having fetched the body along.

    Now, in the late afternoon, he paused on the top of a small undulation and regarded a line of verdant trees in the distance.

    Feeling rejuvenated at the sight, Markowitz set off with fresh energy.

    An hour later his spirits dropped again. The trees were green, and they were lining both sides of a wideish ribbon of sand and pebbles. Desperation drove him to remember one of the survival courses he had participated in. Markowitz looked around and located a mid-sized flattish rock. He used it scrape away at the lowest point of the sandy ribbon.

    He almost fainted with relief when after digging a hole some twenty centimetres deep the sand started to get wet. After a little more digging he had a pool of slightly murky water.

    After drinking and refilling his waterskin he looked around with more interest. He noted that a few of the trees had fruits. He didn¡¯t recognise them, they were flattish ovals, green or green with red and yellow highlights.

    Markowitz found that they were mostly stone, but the stone had a thin covering of a rather tasteless flesh. They were not appetising, but they filled a hole and didn¡¯t make him sick. He spent the night in the branches of one of the trees.

    The next day he woke with the dawn. He checked his status again, and cursed once again.

    ? Name: Markowitz ¨C Title: Twiceborn ¨C Patron: Villius of the eyes ¨C Race: Human ¨C Class: Hunter ¨C Level: One ¨C Age: Fifteen ?

    ¡°Hunter? What the hell! I used to hunt enemies of the establishment, not rats, not animals... I thought I ¨C at least ¨C got to choose my own class.¡±

    After an unappetising breakfast of tasteless fruits and muddy water Markowitz set out to march along the dry riverbed. Heading in a generally downhill direction.

    Three days later Markowitz came into sight of the sea. He stopped to survey the scene. He could see a small collection of huts behind a thorn boma. A handful of individuals were hauling both ends of a net ashore on the beach while two individuals were keeping an eye on the net in a dugout canoe.

    He could also see several groves of coconut palms spreading out along the shore. His mouth watering at the thought of something different to eat, Markowitz hastened on his way.

    * * * EARTH ¨C BLACKROCK * * *

    Blackrock had grown. He had excavated downward and expanded upwards into the floors predesigned as his. Surprisingly he had rapidly overtaken his other self, thanks principally to the big gym that had been created in what was now his second level.

    The combat instruction and practice were the biggest boosts to his energy levels. The slaughterhouse installed in a corner of his first level helped too. He had shared the templates for cows and sheep with his other self.

    Then too he was being encouraged to raise the level of his other self in the hopes that they would be able to form a viable portal.

    His defences were a joke. This was increasingly concerning him. Surprisingly the principal impetus for the concern he was feeling was Sarge. Fin could almost swear Sarge was becoming paranoid by the state of their defences, and the constant presence of scientists and their scanners and gear.

    Things weren¡¯t all bad, then they had had the amusing story about the civilian contractor who had gone to the courts because the job advert specified no aracnophobes. The man has won his case and then almost died of a stroke when he had found himself stalked and surrounded by their spiders.

    According to Sarge he was suing again.

 Chapter 142 (v1.1)

    * * * EARTH ¨C ADVENTURER¡¯S GUILD * * *

    Jake and Jinny were feeling uncomfortable in their newly bought suits as they made their way into the White House. They were accompanied by a tall ugly looking half-orc with a wispy greying beard. Borantal, known as the Devious to his enemies, was wearing elaborately decorated silken mage¡¯s robes. They endured being searched by the White House¡¯s security detail, and waited stoically as they wondered why they had been summoned. ¡®A matter of national urgency¡¯ while sounding intimidating, did not clarify much. ¡®Fetch your magical specialist¡¯ suggested several possibilities. They were assuming it had something to do with the ritual they had been asked about.

    They were hoping that that was the reason for their presence. At least they had looked into it, and thanks to their partners from Tarifax, they were ready to perform the ritual when asked.

    As they followed the young lady that met them near the entrance, they were unsurprised to note that they were being shadowed by a couple of guards.

    Borantal who had been looking thoughtful, glanced at Jake and said, ¡°That magic detector wand they were using was very impressive. Any chance I could get hold of one?¡±

    ¡°I honestly don¡¯t know. Depends where they got it,¡± replied Jake.

    Their guide smirked, ¡°They were a gift to the President from the Tyrant of the Isles.¡±

    ¡°Blue Lagoon,¡± clarified Jinny.

    Borantal narrowed his eyes. ¡°Oh,¡± he said.

    After a long walk their guide ushered them into a large, well appointed room. It was full of important looking people, about half of whom were in uniform.

    ¡°Welcome to the US Mr Borantal. And welcome too, Mr Hennessy, Ms Mendez. Please take your seats,¡± said the man at the head of the table.

    When everyone was in his or her place, the chairman got down to business. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr Hennessy, the founder and head of the System recognized Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Ms Mendez is the second in command of the Guild.¡±

    There were a series of surprised muted murmurs around the table.

    ¡°So, Mr Hennessy, can your organisation perform the magical ritual that will locate all extant dungeons in the USA?¡±

    Jake Hennessey cleared his throat nervously, clearly intimidated by the company he found himself among. ¡°Yes sir,¡± he hesitated, then he continued. ¡°The Tarifax Adventurer¡¯s Guild has kindly offered us the services of two experienced mages. Mr Borantal here is in charge of the Tarifax contingent. He... They have considerable experience with that ritual.¡±

    Jinny Mendez added, ¡°You do realize the ritual will reveal the approximate location of the dungeon, and its relative ¨C strength, nothing else.¡±

    ¡°How close will you be able to pinpoint the dungeons?¡± asked director Wiseman, the new head of the FBI¡¯s paranormal division.

    ¡°To within a kilometre. Usually less, but I¡¯m told some dungeon cores are good at ¨C obscuring their locations,¡± replied Jake, Borantal nodded in agreement.

    An air force Lieutenant General scowled slightly, ¡°Why are you relying on personnel from Tarifax? And for that matter how is it that you are in contact with them?¡±

    ¡°Erm, well sir, we on Earth are only just starting to learn what the System is offering. And, err, well, we simply can¡¯t perform the higher rated rituals yet. Err...¡± Jake trailed off.

    ¡°We are learning fast, mostly thanks to our alliance with the Tarifax Adventurer¡¯s Guild,¡± explained Jinny. ¡°Even the Parthian Adventurers Guild has helped¡ª And um, Blue Lagoon facilitated the contact between our Guilds.¡±

    ¡°Humph,¡± snorted the chairman. ¡°That young woman has her fingers in entirely too many pies.¡±

    ¡°Possibly, Jaydee, but she has the ear of the President, and we are negotiating a comprehensive treaty with her,¡± stated the Admiral who was sitting at the chairman¡¯s right.

    Jake overheard his neighbour, an army officer, mutter sourly to himself, ¡°Yeah, and the damn squids are in tight with her... smug bastards.¡± He also noted that Borantal¡¯s eyes narrowed in speculation.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    * * *

    The meeting continued for what seemed to Jinny and Jake to be an indeterminate time, they lost track of what was being discussed after a while. Borantal for his part sat quietly, taking it all in and evaluating those present. It ended with the decision to enact the ritual on the following day.

    The government contingent was large, all those who had been present at the meeting were present again, and there were several others, who had not been deemed important enough to be present then.

    The room the ritual was taking place in was large, and contained a small wooden table set within the centrally drawn magical sigil. Jake and Jinny were aware it was unneeded, but Borantal the Devious had assured them that this kind of thing tended to impress the local politicians and their hangers on.

    Borantal was leading the ritual aided by Murinella Greythorn, his long time assistant. Also helping was Wiz, from the Earth Guild and Swiftfall Sunhigh. Borantal had been unwilling to include the Drow, especially as he was a follower of the Balancer.

    Jinny and Jake watched as small dots were branded into the large scale map of North America. Jake¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, he hissed, ¡°There¡¯s a Journeyman dungeon in Area 51.¡±

    Jinny¡¯s mouth dropped open briefly. ¡°Wow!¡± she murmured back. ¡°That¡¯s another one we won¡¯t be exploring. Looks like Canada¡¯s got itself a veteran rated dungeon.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, and two others too. But the States have Blue Lagoon and Wonderland... Ah, I mean Mock Turtle,¡± agreed Jake. ¡°And nine others too.¡±

    Then the map was carefully rolled up and taken away. The large globe was placed on the table and Borantal repeated the ritual.

    Once he had finished the new ritual, Borantal and his assistants staggered over to some chairs and collapsed, exhausted. The government people examined the globe excitedly. They were puzzled that the vast majority of the dungeons they had located were in the developed world. They found thirty-two distinct dungeons in all. The one that excited them most was located in Greenland.

    US had the most, closely followed by Europe. Australia and New Zealand had five between them. Hong Kong one, just like Singapore.

    * * *

    Later, back at their Guild HQ, Jake looked round at his friends, old and new. ¡°Can we get copies of those maps?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s easy,¡± grinned Borantal. He waved a hand languidly and a large map etched itself on the west wall. Once that was done he slumped in his chair and emptied a cold can of Budweiser.

    Looking at Jake, Borantal asked. ¡°Now, I want to hear how a dungeon has a title like ¡®Tyrant of the Isles¡¯, and is making treaties with what you tell me is the most powerful nation on your world.¡±

    ¡°Tyrant of the Isles sounds suitably dungeonish," objected Fidget.

    ¡°Mary Silvestre was one of the original people collected by Azurea. She was settled on Parthia. There she took up against pirates and slavers. I think that is how she gained the title ¡®Blackbeard¡¯s Bane¡¯. That ended with her controlling a powerful trading empire. She even conquered a part of the mainland. She rules her country as an absolutist ¨C thus tyrant,¡± explained Jinny.

    ¡°And she¡¯s established herself on Tarifax, she rules over a small island and has numerous sea elf subjects. She has a sky navy and is trading widely,¡± added Swiftfall Sunhigh with as grin.

    Borantal looked at them with slitted eyes, ¡°Anything else? I am aware she is in contact with our Guilds.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s my goddess,¡± said Swiftfall smugly.

    * * * EARTH ¨C MAUI * * *

    Teng Luoyang was starting to relax; his friend Song Kun was hunched tensely over the steering wheel of their hire car. They were nearly there. The yacht they had charted was waiting for them in the marina. They had been lucky, they had found the winged cat sunning itself in the middle of the house¡¯s front yard.

    Their improvised tranquilizer gun had worked; they had worried about the dose of ketamine, and had erred on the side of caution. But it had worked and the winged cat was now sleeping in the cat carrier they had secured on the rear seat. Cai Jun was seated next to it to keep an eye on it.

    He hoped the colonel was right, and that this cat would be able to help them in Wuhan. They were all worried about their families back home.

    Song Kun was driving carefully down the four lane S Puunene Avenue when he groaned, clutched his chest and slumped over the steering wheel. Their car swerved to the right, rode over the pavement barely missing two passing pedestrians and rammed a large spreading tree just outside the local Walgreens.

    Cai Jun, who wasn¡¯t wearing a seatbelt slammed into the rear of Teng Luoyang¡¯s seat. Teng cursed as he was immobilized by the car¡¯s airbags. Then, when he managed to fight his way out of the car he found himself surrounded by a crowd of the curious that included some good Samaritans.

    When he saw the approach of a police car he tried to run, which, quite naturally concentrated the police¡¯s attention on him. His day only got worse when Smokey made himself known, making use of his telepathy to complain of being catnapped.

    * * * AMBUILA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Markowitz settled for the night in a hastily set up lean to. His muscles ached. The inhabitants of The Cove had made him work for his food. Hauling nets was hard work, or at least it became so after the second or third time he had to do it.

    The grilled fish had been delicious. He had no complaints with the food, though he could already see that the diet was going to become monotonous soon.

    The dilapidated coconut fibre hammock he had been given felt strange. But it was better than the ground. Not as good as a decent bed, but for now acceptable.

    Where the hamlet sucked, was that they had no booze. He was already getting withdrawal symptoms. And he was sure it was purely mental, as this new body of his had never indulged.

    On the following day he was woken at dawn. The village cook, an old harridan called Drassilla had handed him a bowl made from half a coconut shell filled with a porridge that stank of fish.

    Markowitz had choked the glutinous mess down, and then Biritius the local headman had accosted him and said, ¡°You say you are a hunter. Go hunt if you want to eat.¡±

    Markowitz made his way into the grasslands seething. He swore he would show the smelly primitives that they couldn¡¯t mess with him.

 Chapter 143

    * * * TARIFAX ¨C CONIMBRIGA * * *

    Claude Melancon awkwardly clambered down from the hansome cab. He stretched to get rid of the crick in his back and looked up at the grimy soot stained building that took up the north frontage of the square they were in.

    He squared his shoulders and then almost jumped out of his skin when his sat phone warbled for attention. Grumbling, and still not sure if he should believe his ears he answered it.

    ¡°Melancon here.¡±

    ¡°Claude, when you can find out what you can about a place called Casar Vitara.¡±

    ¡°Casa Vitara? Yes sir, I will.¡±

    ¡°Casar not Casa. And see if you and your team can make your way there. You are cleared to hire your current local guides for the mission.¡±

    ¡°Yes sir,¡± sighed Claude. ¡°What about our current mission?¡±

    ¡°That comes first, Claude. See to it.¡±

    ¡°Yes sir,¡± replied Claude. He looked at his phone and put it away. He looked up and found Sue Wilkins looking at him with an air of resignation. Ax, Mesca and Silk were simply waiting for him to finish his call. They were paying attention to their surroundings. The way they were watching the surroundings alertly made Claude uneasy.

    ¡°Well, let¡¯s see if we can buy that land,¡± Claude offered as he set his foot on the stairs leading up to the building¡¯s once magnificent front entrance.

    Once through the usual airlock entrance of the local Town Hall, the civic offices of Conimbriga had a weird sense of familiarity. There were numerous members of the public, mostly waiting patiently, sitting down on tired looking chairs, or far more commonly, standing in queues. Then there were the clerks, mostly seeming to ignore their duties and gossiping in small clumps, while a minority did all the work.

    Mesca stopped one of the bronze collared attendants, and after exchanging a few remarks and passing the man a couple of bronze coins, led them to an apparently empty counter. Once there he hit the button of the bell that resided on the counter in question.

    A wispy looking little man with a few strands of oily looking hair combed over a shiny pate shuffled listlessly in their direction. Mesca made a gesture that Claude noted revealed a flash of silver. The little man visibly perked up and shuffled faster.

    Claude further noticed that when he arrived at his position, the little man passed his hand over his counter where Mesca had been resting his hand.

    ¡°Yes, what may I do for you, my lords?¡±

    Mesca smiled and said, ¡°This gentleman and lady wish to purchase some land belonging to the city. The land in question is outside the walls, and was formerly Hazelgrove Farm.¡±

    The clerk showed mild surprise, but he nodded politely, handed them a numbered token from under his counter and said, ¡°Please proceed to the Crimson Room, take the stairs and it¡¯s the second door to the right.¡±

    As he followed Mesca up the stairs Claude felt depressed, it was becoming increasingly obvious that nothing would get done without a sweetener. That and the sheer number of slaves, clearly distinguishable by the collars they wore. Most of the ones here in the town hall wore bronze or silver, which he assumed was the reason that none of them looked as ¨C desperate and beaten down, as the ones who wore leather slave collars.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    According to their briefing on Tarifax, both Frog¡¯s Arena of Blood and Ms Silvestre¡¯s Blue Lagoon were doing what they could against the practice. Mind you, both dungeons had more things on their plate than just working against slavery.

    Then they entered the Crimson Room. It was lavishly furnished, but distinctly dusty and grimy. Once again it took the bribe of a couple of silver coins to get seen. This, despite the fact that they were the only customers present.

    The self-important woman who consented to see them proved amenable to selling only a fraction of the original farm. It cost them almost as much to buy the two fields they wanted, as it would have cost to buy the entire farm. But the taxes would be far less.

    Two hours later they were done. Once in the street Claude used his phone, to discover where they were staying, now that the temple of the goddess of healing had expelled them. Because of Silk, for healing that youth.

    Later, in a hansome cab while on their way to their new lodgings Claude updated their superiors back on Earth. Claude still found it jarring that they could phone between worlds like this. They had to be careful of what they said, because it stood to reason that Ms Silvestre¡¯s people controlled the communications satellites. But then, back on Earth he was well aware that the mobile phone network wasn¡¯t secure.

    That evening, as they gathered around a table in the dining room of the Pig in a Poke, Claude ventured to ask Ax, ¡°So, Just what all is Ms Silvestre involved in? Are you allowed to tell us?¡±

    Ax grinned as he scratched Silk under the chin. ¡°Mostly. Mother is building up her air navy to take on Blackbeard, that is to say the pirates and slavers. Blackbeard has already lost many followers to Mother, here and on Parthia. Mother¡¯s traders are starting to make inroads here too. She has spent treasure, buying and then freeing slaves; they tend to make loyal followers. There is more, but that ¨C well, I am assured she doesn¡¯t want you to know ¨C yet.¡±

    ¡°How is she able to do so much more than Frog? Aren¡¯t they both dungeon cores?¡± asked Sue fishing for clues.

    ¡°Mother is more. She is a goddess,¡± boasted Ax. ¡°And I guess I can tell you, she has plans to free all the sapient dungeons on Tarifax. She has an uneasy alliance with Azurea to do that. I suspect the merely sentient dungeon cores will also be freed in time.¡±

    ¡°What does she get out of it?¡± asked Claude.

    ? She rubs everyone¡¯s nose in the fact that dungeon cores are people too, and that she¡¯s the boss. ? Silk explained.

    Claude thought for a moment; then turning to Grey, asked, ¡°What can you tell us about a place called Casar Vitara? And can you escort us there?¡±

    Grey rubbed his right horn in thought, before looking enquiringly at his companions. Ax rubbed his chin. ¡°I think it¡¯s a small town up north, near the sea. Was a frontier post in the old empire.¡±

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then there should be airships plying the route. Why do you want to go to such a remote spot?¡± asked Grey.

    Claude shrugged, ¡°I honestly don¡¯t know ¨C yet. I suspect we¡¯ll be told if the cost of the journey in time and money isn¡¯t considered excessive.¡±

    Grey downed his ale. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll head down to the airport tomorrow and inquire as to availability of passage. Cost and time. I can let you know sometime tomorrow, or you can accompany me and find out when I do.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C IN THE NEWS * * *

    A spokesman for the Saudi Kingdom has condemned the killing of their citizen Zaidaan al-Khalid in Basel. Mr al-Khalid and his assistant were decapitated in their home.

    Mr Wajeeb al-Khalid the brother of the murdered man, and his heir, discovered that all the liquid assets of his brother were stolen. The thieves seem to have gained access to the murdered man¡¯s bank details.

    * * *

    The Tyrant of the Isles has advised George Soros that he is not welcome on Parthia. Ms Lane Loisdottir acting as the Tyrant¡¯s spokesperson stated, that it was purely a matter of clashing political viewpoints.

    * * *

    An attempt to capture a group of winged cats by a pair of Chinese nationals was foiled today. Authorities on Maui state the two men are presently in custody, and that the state AG is determining what would be the appropriate charges.

    * * *

    Attention has been drawn to Falstaff Middle School in Los Angeles. Mr Galbraith the principal has been arrested for the misappropriation of funds. The school, which was left in a seriously dilapidated condition, has been much improved over the past week.

    The board of governors are concerned as the repairs have been extensive, and they have been unable to figure out where the money for the repairs is coming from. And even more mysteriously, who is doing the repairs.

 Chapter 144

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary wandered into her observation lounge; she went to look out of one of the big windows at the busy harbour. She looked at the small collection of newspapers on the small table by one of the armchairs.

    She sat and picked up the first. Mary flicked through the first edition of the English language ExPat Chronicle. Dropping it, Mary did the same with the second and third editions of that weekly publication.

    Mary released her avatar and returned to her core. Once there she stretched her senses. Then she focused on the offices of the ExPat Chronicle. She checked Kyle and Cherry Swales. The two editors of the new weekly paper were evidently stubborn as rocks. To be living in a dungeon and still not integrated into the System took wilful blindness.

    The two Brits wouldn¡¯t last. So far they hadn¡¯t published anything that annoyed her. Just gossip and personal ads. But their plans for their son and daughter in law were truly stupid. Oh well, it was a self-solving problem. Darwinian so to speak.

    But just to be sure Mary decided to warn all her people...

    ? Be aware, the Swales, who publish the gossip rag ExPat Chronicle, intend to send their son as a travel reporter to explore the world. I do not see them as mine and will not rescue, aid or hinder. ?

    Having made her decision, she turned her attention to the other little problem. The one Mycroft had bought to her attention.

    She swept her awareness over the overstaffed embassy of a struggling Central American state. She listened to the embassy¡¯s charg¨¦ d¡¯affaires finish his briefing. Sitting at the back of the room was the recently arrived Adelio Rosas.

    Something about that name tickled her memories. Mary looked into her core¡¯s records and found the name. Linny had mentioned a man by that name; it had been a passing reference regarding her transformation.

    Mary felt like grinning, looked like an easy favour. And Linny was unstable enough to be unpredictable. So be it, but first to see if Linny wanted the man. Well, there was time; the idiots were planning to move after dark, as if that would affect her.

    She prepared messengers to the other embassies, no point scaring her guests unnecessarily. Then she waited.

    Two hours after dark, two groups of armed men left the embassy. Mary alerted her people and sent the messengers on their way.

    She focused her attention on the streets near her father¡¯s home. She watched as her Special Forces squads waited patiently for the two groups of would be kidnappers. It irked her that the handful of scouts she had scattered around would not be needed. The two groups of thugs, habituated to disappearing defenceless civilians, didn¡¯t even throw out scouts.

    She watched, as her people cut down the cocksure would be kidnappers. There were no survivors, and none of hers was killed. Her lasers proved their worth. Silent and deadly.

    ? Mycroft, just how stupid are those idiots. ?

    ? They just haven¡¯t woken up to what you are. Let¡¯s be honest, with the advantages you seem to have given them. Well, they would have succeeded against most dungeons. ?

    ? What advantages? They asked for an embassy. I gave them one. Then that idiot posted his star snatch squad as the embassy guard. Not satisfied with that, he had the snatch coordinator posted as the charg¨¦ d¡¯affaires. They planned the snatch while they were living in my domain! They had no chance. Now it only remains to mop up the rest. You sure the Generalissimo an¡¯ El President are ignorant? ?

    ? Yes... But cowed. They wouldn¡¯t dare object to anything their chief of Internal Security planned. ?

    ? Humph! Better set up some contingency plans, Mycroft. I might have to arm their rebels. Oh well, time to finish this farce. Most of their guards are dead, time to empty the embassy. ?

    ? Are you still planning to send the ambassador¡¯s children to Ambuila Mother? ?

    ? Yes. An¡¯ the adolescents too, those junior thugs will be dumped on that empty sub-continent. You know ¨C Suruk. As for the children, they will be treasured; children are precious there. And Ambuila needs new blood. ?

    Mary watched as her people moved quietly into the embassy. She basked in the life energy that was being fed her, as the operation proceeded.

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C US EMBASSY * * *This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    Meadows looked at the young runner. He accepted the bulky message and offered the youth a Bit. The boy grinned as he made the copper coin vanish.

    Once the boy was gone, Meadows opened the envelope and found a brief letter and a USB stick. After reading the letter, Meadows went to find the Ambassador.

    Admiral Forrester was watching television with his wife. After scanning the message, Forrester, somewhat reluctantly, made his way to his office with Meadows.

    After watching the film they found on the USB stick, they called in their Spanish translator. They watched it again, this time with a competent translation.

    ¡°Nothing we can do about this,¡± observed Forrester. ¡°We will understand when their ambassador and charg¨¦ d¡¯affaires are expelled.¡±

    Meadows looked grim. ¡°I suspect they will be lucky if they are only expelled.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll take things as they come. She really can see everything in her dungeon, can¡¯t she?¡± asked Forrester.

    ¡°Yes, she can, I¡¯ve confirmed that with Tod,¡± confirmed Meadows.

    ¡°We will need an embassy outside of any dungeon, how is Tod?¡±

    ¡°Bored, but well,¡± said Meadows.

    * * * EARTH ¨C TESSA AND LISSA * * *

    Tessa grinned, she looked at her twin, ¡°It¡¯s a go, time to hunt.¡±

    Lissa checked her weapons, ¡°Good luck twin.¡±

    Lissa ghosted out of the rented holiday chalet and made her way to the capital¡¯s heavily patrolled luxury neighbourhood.

    She smiled to herself as she examined the high wall surrounding the garden of the luxury villa. She snorted in amusement. The dogs were not expecting leopard girls, never mind mages. She gathered herself and jumped. She cleared the wall, not by much, but she cleared it.

    She didn¡¯t see any of the dogs as she crossed the garden, keeping to the shadows.

    With her abilities, it proved ridiculously easy to enter the villa. Knowing where the guards would be, thanks to their scrying, she was easily able to reach the master bedroom.

    She found Henriquez, the head of Internal Security asleep in his king sized bed with a pretty young woman. One quick sleep spell later, Lissa drew her sword and took Henriquez¡¯s head. Placing this in her storage device Lissa withdrew.

    Once she got to the square in front of the cathedral, Lissa stuck the head on a long spear she produced from her storage device, then she stuck the spear in the central flower bed.

    With one last look, Lissa headed back to their hired chalet.

    * * *

    Tessa gave her twin half an hour before alerting the small squad that was her responsibility. They too left the chalet quietly.

    Tessa and her party got into their rented car, and drove towards the centre of town. They parked near one of the nightclubs popular with tourists, tossing a handful of change to the skulking street kids.

    After a bit of time strolling around, they moved quietly towards a quieter neighbourhood. This area was almost deserted, probably because of the presence of the building they were interested in. The old colonial style mansion was mostly dark. The feared Internal Security department owned it. They knew, from divinations and scrying, that it was mostly deserted at this time in the night. There would be a couple of bored guards watching the front entrance, and someone manning the room controlling the electronic surveillance for the building. Apart from them there were a trio of thugs guarding a couple of political prisoners in the cellar.

    Tessa and her friends activated their personal illusion talismans, they checked each other out and were satisfied that they now looked like five, none too prosperous locals.

    Tessa grinned as she looked at Leon, the party¡¯s battle mage. ¡°I¡¯ll use shadow casting to get in. That way we will avoid setting off any alarms. I¡¯ll try to neutralise the comms centre. Then the door guards, once I get the door open you head for the prisoners, free and heal them. If they want weapons, give the them the AKs.¡±

    Tessa used her ability to step through shadows to enter the building. She used a convenient window. It was closed and barred but with her specialised magics, it proved no barrier.

    She reached the locked door to the building¡¯s security nerve centre without problem. She was feeling jumpy, as twice so far she had felt an unnatural chill. ¡®If this was Parthia, I would swear they had ghosts or worse,¡± she thought.

    Despite everything the door was not guarded against magic and one of her more basic lockpicking spells opened the locks. Tessa shoved the door open and entered the room. The technician¡¯s head turned to look at the opening door even as his hand reached for the alarm.

    A three round burst from the AK 47 she was holding dropped the man in his tracks. Tessa sighed in relief as the powerful silence spell on the gun held. Once again she felt that unnatural chill, even as a dim shadow seemed to gather around the fallen man.

    She shook herself, turned and made her way towards the front door. She found the two guards playing checkers. She quickly cut them down. The spell on her gun held, but she noted it was getting strained.

    Once she had the door open, Leon and the others entered quietly. They closed the door behind them and made their way towards the entrance to the cellars.

    ¡°Don¡¯t linger, there is something malevolent trying to manifest,¡± explained Tessa.

    ¡°Right,¡± agreed Leon.

    The door at the top of the stairs proved no more difficult to open than the last. But they were unable to miss the pressure alarms on the stairs. So they raced down and burst into the guard cum torture room with guns blazing. The guards managed to get off a few shots, but Leon¡¯s barrier prevented them from doing damage.

    There were two shadows this time, and they seemed more ¨C present ¨C somehow. Anita bypassed them, potions in hand. The party hurried and they dragged the three prisoners out of the room and up the stairs. They all felt the chill in the air and they almost ran out of the house.

    Once outside, Tessa gathered the shadows and they healed the former prisoners. They left the former prisoners the AKs they had used in the assault and rescue and left fading into the shadows.

    Not much later, they were once again in their car with their illusionary disguises discarded. They returned to their rented Chalet. Tessa watched as Leon and the others stepped through the portal to Parthia. She poured herself a drink and waited for her twin.

    When Lissa arrived back, the leopard twins stepped through the portal and went to report to Mary. Lewis recovered his domain from the chalet, and dispelled the portal.

 Chapter 145 (v1.1)

    * * * EARTH ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Blue Lagoon: Oscar good news. It¡¯s been fixed, you¡¯re the official guardian of Clay an¡¯ Viv. On the other front, everything is in hand on Tarifax.

    Oscar¡¯s Mine: Thanks Mary. You sure we can get the other me out of that market safely?

    Blue Lagoon: Neat name Oscar, congrats. Can¡¯t be hundred per cent sure but... Yeah, I¡¯m sure we will succeed.

    Blackrock (cmp): I understand you are supplying Oscar with the inter world portal Mary. Can you do that for us? It would make life easier.

    Falstaff Middle School: Thanks for hanging Galbraith out to dry Mary. Any progress finding me a teacher for Magic?

    Goblin Town: That¡¯s asking a lot Sarge... And it would only create other problems.

    Blue Lagoon: Got to get an amulet to both ends. You got any idea where on Ambuila your core¡¯s other self is lurkin¡¯?

    Blackrock (cmp): Not really. Grasslands and low hills, small lake at foot of some falls with another dungeon. A small river and a tribe of semi nomadic goat herders, could be almost anywhere near the equator.

    Alligator Haven: Take a star sight. *chortle*

    Blue Lagoon: That might actually work Gator.

    Alligator Haven: Huh!

    Blue Lagoon: I¡¯ll send a cat lady I know, to speak to you ¡¯bout that Snakey.

    * * * TARIFAX ¨C GREY * * *

    In the morning, directly after breakfast, Grey and Mesca left the Pig in a Poke and made their way to the main commercial airship port of the town. Once there they confirmed their suppositions regarding Casar Vitara.

    On returning to their inn, Grey learned that there would be another eleven people going to Casar Vitara with them. Sighing in resignation, Grey returned to the airship port to obtain the relevant tickets.

    When he got back after his second visit to the airship port, Grey met the new members of their party. He looked over what was obviously a raid group. Grey was not impressed; they were all warriors of various types, no healer and no mages. And the warrior types were not particular high levelled.

    At least their leader, a captain Benedek was willing to ask for advice and open to suggestions. Unfortunately, his orders did not allow him to recruit additional personnel. That meant that Mesca would be their only mage, and worse, Silk would be the party¡¯s healer. And Grey still didn¡¯t trust the cat.

    They boarded the Star of the East, a mid sized passenger airship, early on the following day. It left Conimbriga shortly before noon. To Grey¡¯s surprise it immediately made for the coast.

    Grey located the Purser, and asked, ¡°Excuse me, but why are we heading for the coast? I thought Novarmagus was to the north?¡±

    Purser II looked up at the big troll, scratched his neck under his silver collar, and replied; ¡°That is true sir. However, ever since the drow and sea elves of Blue Lagoon have been patrolling the ocean, the air pirates have relocated. It¡¯s safer for us to overfly the ocean. And then too, the air has been better over the ocean recently. Better visibility.¡±

    ¡°But, isn¡¯t the trip much longer this way, what about coal and supplies?¡± asked a startled Grey.

    ¡°We no longer have to pay insurance to half a dozen independent cooperatives. Things are cheaper this way, as the cost of your passage should have shown you.¡±

    Grey rubbed his horn in frustration; things were changing too fast for him, and his goddess was not that fond of change. Then he blurted, ¡°You mean they aren¡¯t charging taxes for clearing out the pirates?¡±

    Purser II grinned, ¡°No taxes, no protection money. It¡¯s a holy war, their goddess hates Blackbeard.¡±

    * * *

    The next day they were flying over the ocean, the sky was hazy, but the sun was visible. The deck of the Star of the East was crowded with passengers, and crew, enjoying the unusual sensation. That was when a pair of small, absurdly fast and noisy flyers approached to inspect them.

    Grey noted that captain Benedek stiffened when he used his binoculars to inspect them. Grey overheard him inform Claude that the flyers, that he called strike fighters, were armed with AIM-120s.

    The Star of the East dipped its ensign to them, and shortly after turned towards the shore. Grey and Benedek noted that the two flyers shot past them and headed inland, to loud cheers from the crew.

    Once over land, the Star of the East soon encountered the ever present yellow fog. They were passed by the two flyers on their way back to the sea. Benedek cursed softly. He turned to Claude, ¡°They¡¯ve used a missile since they passed us last.¡±

    And sure enough when they were about half an hour from Novarmagus they passed over scattered wreckage and a small fire. The Star of the East circled the wreckage twice before resuming its way. It looked like all that was left of a flyer, from the scattered guns and the number of dead, the crew of the Star of the East was sure it had been a pirate. One that had been waiting for them.

    Once they docked in the airship port in Novarmagus Grey hustled the whole party across to where their connection was finishing loading.

    The Empire Flag II was a cargo hauler that catered for passengers. Their cabins were smaller and far less comfortably furnished. Captain Driistor was very interested to hear of the downing of the supposed pirate. He hurried his crew along and they were soon retracing their way to the sea.

    * * *The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Grey was glad when they arrived at Casar Vitara with no further incident. They were met by one of Blue Lagoon¡¯s agents, a huge were named Iluak whose human form was heavily built and over two meters tall. He also sported a bushy walrus moustache. With him was a tiny woman cuddling a racoon.

    Iluak ignored him and instead dealt directly with Benedek. The first thing he did was hand the captain a crystal amulet with the words: ¡°Someone needs to invoke this in the dungeon¡¯s domain so that the portal can be established.¡±

    Benedek looked round cautiously as he accepted the small crystal knick-knack. ¡°Anything else I should know?¡±

    ¡°Make sure the other amulet is in Oscar¡¯s domain on Earth,¡± said Iluak. ¡°The Oscar on this world is in charge of the Covered Market. It¡¯s the town¡¯s principal market. The owner rents space, stalls and shops. The town¡¯s main slave mart is located in the market¡¯s east quadrant. I believe that its presence is mandated by the town council. I have heard the market¡¯s owner is not happy at having to host the slave sellers.

    ¡°Not because Rupinius Baltor objects to slavery, but because of security concerns, and because his rent is regulated by the council. He could make more if he was free to rent the space to whomever he wished.¡±

    ¡°Do you believe this guy would sell us the market and Oscar? Or just Oscar?¡± asked Claude.

    ¡°Maybe, but it would be ruinously expensive. And the moment you freed Oscar the alarm would sound. You must understand that the locals are rightfully terrified of a free dungeon,¡± explained Iluak.

    ¡°So, what do you suggest we do?¡± asked a visibly frustrated captain Benedek.

    ¡°Mother suggested capturing Oscar¡¯s core, in conjunction with Earth¡¯s Oscar freeing his other self and liberating this companion. Then getting out of town and finding a cave somewhere along the shore to set up Oscar¡¯s new dungeon, and giving you lot a free hand to set up a fortified bridgehead.¡±

    Grey watched this with growing annoyance; he was becoming irritated at being ignored, seeing as he was, nominally at least, in charge of the raid.

    * * *

    The next few days were spent exploring the town and market. Iluak and Sandaara left town by the heavily fortified northern gate. With them went two of Benedek¡¯s men. They returned a week later with several maps.

    The coast to the north was rocky and lined with cliffs. Iluak had located several caves that looked promising. Some tidal, some not.

    Slowly the plan came together, Benedek and Claude spent a great deal of time on their phones, especially when Iluak produced a tablet and introduced them to the orbital views available. Benedek and Claude were somewhat frustrated that they weren¡¯t as good as the views available on Earth but they were soon lost in their planning.

    Then it was time, Grey watched as Iluak and his team headed north again, their mission to see to securing the bridge, should that become necessary. Ax and Silk would be carrying Oscar¡¯s core, he had a silk bag to grant the Core as much insulation as possible. As for himself and the remainder of his team they were remaining near to the entrance of the market to ensure the rest a secure withdrawal.

    Grey watched the two armoured minotaurs that were guarding the entrance. If anything was to go wrong their actions would let him know.

    Then, despite expecting it, Grey almost jumped out of his skin when the Town¡¯s bells rang the alarm. ¡°Rogue Dungeon ¨C Free Dungeon¡± they sang. In the market, Grey saw chaos erupt. After a stunned moment, everyone he could see stampeded for the exits, shying away from the minotaur guards.

    Grey began to feel happier when the two minotaurs just stood there blank faced. But then they jerked to life and began laying into the fleeing market goers. Grey stepped forward, drawing his sword. Lia¡¯s shoulders slumped, but she unlimbered her battleaxe and joined Grey. Mesca called up his magic.

    Grey and Lia managed to surprise one of the minotaurs, they were lucky and they quickly cut it down. Mesca called a thick mist and used it to hinder the other minotaur.

    The market goers who had started to fall back in order to find another exit cheered and hesitated. Then seeing the second minotaur was turning to deal with its attackers they surged forwards once again, chancing the exit.

    Grey and Lia were able to deal with the second minotaur when two of the market goers joined in to help them.

    Grey watched with satisfaction as Ax and Silk passed them, along with the Earthlings. He decided to remain guarding the entrance to the market, especially as the two volunteers were still with him, and then too, a few stallholders had joined them. They dared not venture into the rapidly emptying market as the building¡¯s roof started to collapse.

    They were still undecided as to what to do when the first of the town guard arrived to deal with the disaster. They were promptly co-opted into an ad hoc militia to guard the entrance to the market.

    Grey exchanged a glance with Lia and Mesca, shrugged and stood doing his best to look alert. Grey noted that the city guards had no trouble securing the market, two of them escorted a wounded Rupinius out of the ruins. The man had one guard with him, and he was complaining that Cyrdwynne, the former dungeon¡¯s companion had escaped. The guards did not look happy that Rupinius was moaning rather than thanking them for the rescue.

    Shortly after that, while the wounded were being helped out, a guard captain dismissed them with thanks for doing their civic duty. He also gave each of them a token granting them a small discount on that year¡¯s taxes.

    * * * EARTH ¨C THE LANDRYS * * *

    Harvey looked at the top of his wife¡¯s head with despair in his eyes. She was crying into his shoulder, and her wracking sobs were breaking his heart. He felt helpless, as all he could do was pat her back and murmur reassurance, which even to his ears, sounded futile.

    He cast his mind back to October of last year. They had been so happy at Melly¡¯s squeals of joy when she had seen the two ponies in their pet carrier.

    And now, Suzette¡¯s father had come down with the Chinese Wuhan virus. And due to his asthma he was not doing well. They hadn¡¯t even been able to visit him in intensive care.

    The ponies were no help, they point blank refused to help adults, at least Melly would be fine. It might be small comfort, but at least they were reassured on that point.

    ¡°Sue, maybe you should phone your brother. Ask him if his friend Frog can help us.¡±

    Suzette rubbed her eyes, ¡°May-maybe. Do you think it will help?¡±

    ¡°It can¡¯t hurt. Can it?¡± asked Harvey.

    * * * EARTH ¨C OLIVER BROUSSETTE * * *

    Olli swallowed, he felt devastated, his sister Suzette had just phoned him with some very unwelcome news. Why had no one told him his father was on death¡¯s door? The conversation he had just had had been very uncomfortable.

    After the initial misunderstanding, and the shock, he had been able to partially reassure his Suzette. He looked out of the window of his living room at the somewhat unkempt lawn that was his front yard.

    No point driving out to the Arena of Blood, if he did, he would only have to waste time explaining things to the agency guys, and they might, no make that probably, wouldn¡¯t let him through to see Frog. Better to phone.

    Olli picked up his phone and dialled. He waited until Frog answered, ¡°Hi Olli, what¡¯s up?¡±

    ¡°Frog, thank god! Look can you do anything about the Wuhan illness? My dad¡¯s got it bad.¡±

    ¡°Illnesses are not my thing Olli, sorry.¡±

    ¡°How about your friend, you know, Mary?¡±

    There was a long silence on the line; Olli almost lost hope while he waited. He was just about to speak again when Frog finally answered. ¡°Olli, look, I don¡¯t know if Mother can help. I will, if you want, pass your question on to her. Are you willing to accept owing her a favour should she be able to help? I already owe her too many.¡±

    ¡°God, yes! It¡¯s my father who needs help desperately.¡±

    * * *

    Half an hour later Olli answered his phone.

    ¡°Hello Frog. Do you have good news for me?¡±

    ¡°Mother tells me that she¡¯s a geneticist. But that despite that Bl... The System provides dungeons with the ability to purchase treasures. One such is a potion of Cure Major Disease. The only problem is treasure purchased from the system has to be won by adventurers. It can¡¯t be sold or given by us dungeons.¡±

    Olli wondered what Frog was trying to say. ¡°Does that mean you can¡¯t help?¡±

    ¡°Up to you, Olli. Put together a party and head for the Moon. Lewis Carroll will handle getting you out of this system and to the appropriate dungeon. Beat the challenge and you will earn a number of potions. Be aware that you will be risking your life. Lewis will take it easy... but...¡±

    ¡°But, it has to be a challenge... That¡¯s what you are saying, isn¡¯t it?¡± asked Olli. ¡°Please, set it up for me Frog. How do I get to the Moon?¡±

 Chapter 146

    * * * MARY & MARY * * *

    On Parthia Mary dismissed her avatar and sank into her core. On Earth Mary gave one last look around her original domain off Maui before releasing her consciousness to merge with herself.

    First came the all too familiar sensations as they merged their experiences of the previous day, and then came the surprise. They found themselves looking down on their people on their worlds. And they saw some possible short-range futures and outcomes for their faithful.

    They knew they were looking at the Stellar Voyager, Hawai¡¯iloa and his crew were busy, they had just done a sling shot around the local star and now had their liftwood providing maximum acceleration against the still close star. Mary could see her crabmen were standing up well to the manoeuvre. The future was easy to read. They would soon enter hibernation and Hawai¡¯iloa would be all but shutting down for the long journey.

    Then they were observing a very pink bedroom on Maui. Two very different little girls were ranged in alliance against the world in defence of their little ponies. Mary noted the two ponies were dormant, their sides had merged and their baby was growing in the blister that currently united them. The future showed them a viable birth, and that the tomboy and the little princess would become firm friends and allies.

    On Ambuila, in a poor fishing village, the villagers were celebrating three pregnancies. And a young gangly teenager was sulking at being ignored. He was a twiceborn and his name was Markowitz. The near future showed a new shrine and a priest.

    Elsewhere there was an orbital telescope ¨C and it was not the Hubble Space Telescope.

    On Parthia she/they watched a skirmish between the drow and the dwarves. The near future suggested a high chance of an all out war between the two communities in the south.

    On Earth again, in LA, in a classroom full of thirteen-year-olds, a casually dressed catgirl was using ritual magic to give targeted individual lectures on basic magic. And at the back of the room four adults listened attentively. The near future suggested Dona was going to need some help.

    The scenes flashed past one after the other and when Mary separated into her separate selves again she spent a few seconds in contemplation.

    * * *

    From her core at the bottom of the Pacific Mary reached out. She sought out Shadow on Parthia.

    ? Shadow, Dona¡¯s goin¡¯ need you soon. Some rich stalker is goin¡¯ to fixate on her soon. I¡¯ll get Mycroft to get you everythin¡¯ you¡¯ll need to be legal in the USA. Make your way to one of Lewis¡¯ entrances and make your way to Earth an¡¯ report to Mycroft or Moriarty for info. ?

    Shadow froze, and as he gained the understanding as to what Mary meant by ¡®stalker¡¯, he growled softly. Dona was his... Unless she was to tell him otherwise... And even then he would look out for her.

    Without another thought he turned on his heel and trotted out of town heading for the nearest Mock Turtle Dungeon.

    * * *

    Then she sought out her mother¡¯s house on Maui, and she reached out to Whiskers.

    ? Whiskers, gather up a friend or two. Two of the ponies have merged. They are producin¡¯ a colt, the first one ever. Their partners are havin¡¯ trouble keepin¡¯ ¡¯em out of the hands of some well meanin¡¯ adults. Do you mind goin¡¯ an¡¯ keepin¡¯ an eye on ¡¯em? ?

    Whiskers stretched and yawned, blinking lazily.

    ? I¡¯ll take Patches and Smoke. It¡¯s been boring here without you Mother. We¡¯ll fly over now.¡±

    ? Thanks Whiskers. Keep in touch. I¡¯ll be ¡¯round. And you know you¡¯re always welcome to visit other me on Parthia. Or me, when I¡¯m on one of the other worlds. ?

    * * *

    On Parthia Mary¡¯s core flickered in a way that suggested a resigned sigh. Mary transferred her consciousness to Ambuila; she hung on to her spare core for a moment, fighting the pull of the Gods¡¯ Realm. She considered the various plans she had for airships.

    Drawing on the stores of mana she had building up on Fragatta, she started to create a mid-sized lightly armed airship. She incorporated the solar cells from her Earth flying bus and the electric motors. She didn¡¯t have portals all over Ambuila after all, and refuelling would be a pain.

    For the crew, she went with a mix of wolf and cat ¡¯folk. After all it worked well on Parthia, albeit with sailing ships.

    Only when everything was on hand did she relax her grip on her local core, and ascend to her throne room in the Gods¡¯ Realm of the planet. With a certain resignation she got down to work. The urgent tasks and problems transcended the barriers imposed by the worlds, so they had already been dealt with. The routine, day-to-day stuff didn¡¯t, so it needed doing.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Resenting the time she could have been using to play in any of her many oceans, Mary ploughed through her backlog.

    Twice during this time her eye hunter serpents caught and ate trios of spying eyes.

    After the second occurrence Mary looked at her happy, well-fed serpents and thought to herself, that she would have to do something about the source of the eyes. Soon. She spent a few minutes plotting, then shook herself, and returned to clearing her backlog.

    Having finished, Mary took a moment to look down on her world. Her new airship seemed to be performing well as it made its way across the world on its maiden flight. Almost half way across the planet she noted a small blurring. She grinned, that was Markowitz the twice born.

    ¡°We¡¯ll soon see Markie, have you learnt your lesson? If not, well, maybe soon you¡¯ll be thrice born,¡± she said softly to her throne room. Then she went back to scanning her world for problems, or just entertainment. After all, it was better than any Soap.

    * * * AMBUILA ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Blue Lagoon: Fin, got a request from your Earth other half¡¯s companion. Question is, do YOU want to be connected to him an¡¯ through him to the US authorities?

    Stillwater: What! Hey Fin say no. I don¡¯t want the man around here.

    Blackrock: Cool it Katie. It isn¡¯t that bad. And in answer to your question Mary, I¡¯m in two minds about it. *grin*

    Unnamed (Daniel Azevedo): I think my link to the other me is growing stronger. Does that mean he¡¯s getting ready to put down roots?

    Blue Lagoon: Ouch! Puns Fin? And Daniel, yeah, almost certainly, Bluey is forcin¡¯ things along.

    Blackrock: Sorry. Just put off finding me please Mary. Don¡¯t want to lose the link for selfish reasons, but I don¡¯t like what I became on Earth and I don¡¯t fancy having the army in control. My defences just are not up to it.

    Unnamed (Daniel Azevedo): Will you keep an eye on my other me? Please oh mighty Goddess. I most definitely don¡¯t want me to fall into the hands of the local gangs or the government.

    Blue Lagoon: ... Fine! ... But you owe me a favour.

    * * * EARTH / L.A. ¨C DR. SWINDLEHURST * * *

    Zelma gazed at the school building with a vague sense of bemusement. She murmured a vague thank you to Ogden for the lift, and got out of his car. After a few moments, during which, she gazed at the hovering blue box that told her she had found the Falstaff Middle School. Swiping away the System¡¯s sign, she headed for the front entrance.

    Behind her, Dr Ogden Swindlehurst locked his car and followed his absent-minded friend. He wondered, not for the first time, if he had been wise to persuade her to accompany him. It was very hard to gain her attention, but knowing as he did, of her fascination for all things pertaining to magic, he had persisted.

    Swiping away the System¡¯s message, he wondered how they had managed it. He liked the wavy line under ¡®Falstaff Middle School¡¯.

    Once through the main entrance Ogden found Zelma having a fruitless conversation with a youngster, who was wearing a woollen hat. Considering the weather, Ogden found that odd, but he put it down to the idiosyncrasies of young boys.

    Spying the administration offices, he headed in that direction. He found the school¡¯s principal discussing something with professors Underwood and Yuen.

    Ogden was startled when someone said, ¡°¡¯Ere¡¯s the uvver one Snakey,¡± in a voice that hadn¡¯t broken yet. Turning he saw that it was the urchin in the woollen hat. And he had Zelma in tow.

    The man he presumed to be the principal, surely he couldn¡¯t be named Snakey ¨C sighed, ¡°How many times have I told you to call me ¡®Mr Serpiente¡¯, Jack.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s arright governor, yer want me ter take them ter Dona, then?¡± answered Jack, apparently unfazed.

    ¡°That¡¯s Ms Margarita to you, Jack,¡± insisted the principal. ¡°And I¡¯ll take them, hurry along now Jack, or you will be late to class.¡±

    Then the principal turned to his guests, ¡°I still think this is a bad idea, but the governors insisted. Please follow me, classes will be starting soon.¡±

    Ogden followed Mr Serpiente the principal, or more accurately he followed Zelma. They waded through a sea of children all hurrying to get to their next classes, and were ushered into a classroom where most of the pupils were already seated under the eyes of a very attractive looking young cat woman.

    The principal, Mr Serpiente, introduced his unwanted guests to Dona. She smiled and said, ¡°So you want to learn about magic. I¡¯ve borrowed some chairs from the staff room and placed them at the back. Please make yourselves comfortable.¡±

    Ogden murmured something even he didn¡¯t understand, and he made sure to take the chair next to Zelma. He intended to keep an eye on her during the lecture as he found her beautiful when she was intent on learning.

    A few minutes later the roll had been called and Dona turned to the whiteboard where she closed a gap on a partially drawn circle.

    Ogden blinked as he felt something pass over him. He almost felt as if he¡¯d just answered several questions. And then the lesson began and he forgot everything else. The cat woman proved to be an excellent teacher, though he was sure the children would be unable to understand most of it due to the vocabulary used, and the concepts that were being explored.

    And then, before he was ready, the lesson was over. The children seemed quiet as they gathered their things and started to depart.

    ¡°Liss,¡± said Dona, stopping one of the girls in her tracks. ¡°Don¡¯t forget your phone now.¡±

    Liss looked back at her desk, blushed, darted back to grab her phone and fled.

    ¡°Well, I hope you got something out of that, I don¡¯t have long as my next lesson is in half an hour. Any questions?¡± asked Dona.

    Zelma smiled, ¡°Yes, what did you mean about the use of spiritual energy as a special case in certain types of mages?¡±

    ¡°Just that. Priests practice magic, but mostly they get their mana from their gods via centres of worship.¡±

    Ogden blinked in surprise, ¡°Where did that come from Zelma. Mage Margarita was teaching about how it was important to access and store mana. Not about Spirituality.¡±

    ¡°What! Nonsense. I recognised the concepts of yin and yang...¡± said Underwood, before trailing off.

    Dona grinned, ¡°The initial lectures are tailored to the recipient¡¯s world view and prior knowledge. Just a bit of admittedly complex ritual magic and prior preparation.¡±

    Ogden stared at this mage in stupefaction. He blurted, ¡°You mean we all got a different lesson?¡±

    ¡°It was broadly speaking the same lesson, only the ¨C particulars ¨C differed. The lessons will soon converge and the children will soon have a compatible knowledge base. Now please, I have to prepare for my next set of pupils.¡±

 Chapter 147

    * * * THE GARDENS OF PARADISE * * *

    Once again, Villius of the Eyes found himself waiting in one of the opulent receiving rooms in the palace serving the greater gods of the low middle tier. He had been informed of this appointment with Bucantil the Somnolent, god of the mid tier who was been in charge of Gods of the lower mid tier. The messenger had only given him two days notice, something Villius found outrageous.

    Villius grumbled to himself at all this hurrying, only to have to wait. Hurry up and wait, that seemed to be all his life consisted of nowadays.

    Resigned to the wait, he cast his mind back to his last meeting with Bucantil, and that had only been a couple of weeks ago. And that insufferable excitable rodent-brained Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz had been present too.

    They had asked him to sacrifice his pawn. Admittedly his pawn was weak and very fallible, but he had hoped to gain something more than Bucantil and Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz desired.

    He had no choice; Bucantil the Somnolent was his superior in the hierarchy of greater gods, and had been placed as leader of his tier. He remembered their ceremony, the ripping of the weak veil protecting his pawn, their pawn now. And with three gods placing their protection on Markowitz. The level of danger should allow the gods of the world to perceive him, especially with the veil of protection torn.

    It had cost him another trio of eyes, but he knew the cunning overachiever had not directly taken the bait. Directly acting against a pawn of the greater gods would have freed them to take direct action in the pawn¡¯s defence. Now he just had to figure out how to slide out from this mess, he didn¡¯t have many worshipers left back on Hastia. Maybe he should stir himself and gain more worshipers. This one was dangerous. She was a killer, and worse, she knew how to entice others to kill for her.

    A muted chime rang out through the room, Villius didn¡¯t move but three eyes inclined to observe the doorway. One of the most minor of gods, one of Bucantil¡¯s servants hovered there. Villius ignored him until he said, ¡°Your mightiness, his lordship, the great and benevolent Bucantil will see you now.¡±

    Villius rose slowly, and made his stately way to Bucantil¡¯s grand reception room. As he turned into the tapestried hall that lead to the public entrance of the reception room he was irked to find that insufferable ass Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz ten paces in front of him.

    Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz entered the reception room and immediately dropped to his knees and kowtowed. Despite being surprised Villius didn¡¯t slow, instead he prepared to step around the rodent god.

    On entering the reception room he was startled to find Bucantil the Somnolent standing to one side of his throne. Seated on the throne, and wearing a scowl of displeasure was Brinius of the Blue Host, a god of the lower high tier, and a leading luminary of the New Sages. Villius now understood why rodent breath was kissing the floor, but despite the danger, he was too proud to emulate the rat.

    Villius bowed low and stood some two paces in front of Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz and awaited developments, even as he sought for some way out of this imbroglio he found himself.

    Brinius glared at the blue freak with displeasure, if it wasn¡¯t for his abilities with time he would gladly squash every one of his sixty-six eyes before throwing him into the frozen depths of the twenty-third hell. He tapped his brightly painted claws on the hand rest of Bucantil¡¯s throne, tearing at the finish and dislodging the gilding. ¡°Why didn¡¯t the little bitch get our message? Why is that useless human still alive? I wasted a full day with my guards on that nasty planet, and the bitch didn¡¯t come. And you may rise.¡±This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz raised his head cautiously, ¡°We tore the veil as you ordered lord Brinius of the Blue Host. The youngster must have learned of Villius¡¯ twice born. Maybe it wasn¡¯t a good choice by Villius, and the... the youngster didn¡¯t see him as a threat.¡±

    Villius snorted. ¡°You asked me to find an enemy of hers from her original planet that had died because of her. The Mother of Monsters very wisely treads carefully on her home world. The established powers there are not to be trifled with. Markowitz was the best of a bad lot.¡±

    ¡°Empower him. Get her to act against him,¡± ordered Brinius.

    Villius snorted again, ¡°She has agents, she won¡¯t bother to deal with a flea personally.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s young and rash, look how she killed Sentssonwi¡¯tsna¡¯wa,¡± offered Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz.

    Brinius glard at Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz while his hands gripped the arms of the throne, splintering them in his rage. Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz gulped and ducked his head.

    ¡°You had better be right Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz, for I want an excuse to crush her... Now get out of here... all of you and see that I get what I want, or you will reside in one of the eighty hells for a millennium, and not as administrators or guards.¡±

    Villius turned and strode out of the room in the wake of a scurrying Meek¡¯aym¡¯ooz, who had his tail between his legs.

    * * *

    Back at home Villius plotted. He had to slide out of this, somehow. First thing was to distract the little sociopath. As far as he was concerned she could have Markowitz with his goodwill. Though he suspected she saw the miserable twice born as little more than an irritant to be swept under the carpet.

    Villius pondered, ¡®Mmm, given her track record, if I was to open a world to her, she might just forgive me my eyes. Now what world would prove best? Given Earth... Yes she would understand a world with a restricted palette of sophonts. I think I know just the place, she will dislike it... and its twin in the sky with all those oceans will draw her... Maybe she will come to an agreement in regard to eyes in Ambuila¡¯s gods realm. I¡¯m starting to get a complex about snakes.¡¯

    Villius rose slowly and made his way to his treasury, once there he rummaged around in a couple of cluttered crates. ¡°Ah! There you are,¡± he exclaimed to himself as he seized a glass globe containing a spinning depiction of a brownish looking planet.

    Concentrating, Villius added a special enchantment to the globe. Examining it carefully, he was satisfied with his efforts.

    He left his treasury with a lighter step and headed for his office where he spent a couple of hours writing a letter. Most of the time was spent on rejected attempts. When he was finally satisfied, he placed the glass globe and the letter in a small storage device. He then wrapped this up and sealed it with his seal.

    Finally he called his major domo and told him to call Sin Tchai the messenger.

    * * * EARTH / L.A. ¨C DR. SWINDLEHURST * * *

    Ogden just stared at the incongruous sight standing in the doorway to the principal¡¯s office. Beside him he was sure Zelma, Underwood and Yuen were as surprised as he was.

    The mage, Ms Margarita stood there in black leather trousers, a manga t-shirt that read ¡®Catgirls Rule¡¯ and carrying a motorcycle helmet. Behind her, peering into the room was a feral looking young girl with a woollen hat pulled low over her ears.

    ¡°Jill said you wanted to see me Snakey,¡± said Dona.

    Mr Serpiente sighed, ¡°Yes, Dona, our guests have questions about your lesson. About the targeted teaching. Can you explain.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s simple really, the mages have a duty to instruct the youngsters on what magic is and implies. Very few have any interest in wasting time on this tedious task, so we came up with this ritual. It saves time, and it allows us to use journeymen mages to deal with those children who don¡¯t have influential parents.¡±

    ¡°Can you create a similar ritual for maths or science?¡± asked Ogden.

    ¡°I couldn¡¯t, not by myself. And whoever did it would need a large amount of information. It would involve a team of mages assisted by mathematicians. And it would probably take them months,¡± replied Dona. ¡°Good luck finding the mages who¡¯d be willing to take time off from their duties for that long.¡±

    Ogden examined Dona¡¯s answer, he was certain she was wrong, he was certain that there were sure to be plenty of people who would be glad to learn how to create something like that. He vaguely heard Yuen ask something about UCLA.

    Dona shrugged, ¡°If you want me to give this lesson, and it is not a lecture, at your university. Well, arrange it with Snakey and be prepared to pay for the privilege.¡±

    Ogden watched bemused as Dona stepped back, turned on her heel and strode off with a, ¡°Bye!¡±

 Chapter 148

    * * * FRAGATTA¡¯S WATER MOON ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary set aside her book and looked out of the dome at the rocky ocean bottom. The woody treelike growths were coming along nicely; the massive roots were using mana to force their way deep into the moon¡¯s depths. She glanced at her book and grinned, ¡®Bet Jack Vance would¡¯a liked someone usin¡¯ his ideas from Blue Planet. Glad things are easier to hurry along in my dungeons. Lookin¡¯ forward to the tree isles.¡¯

    She narrowed her eyes as she sensed a familiar very minor divine aura approaching. She watched as Sin Tchai emerged from the gods¡¯ realm and made his way to where she waited. Mary noted that Sin Tchai seemed nervous.

    ? Back again? What is it this time messenger, and who is your message from? ?

    Sin Tchai dropped to the ground and kowtowed.

    ? Oh get up, do. ?

    Sin Tchai rose nervously, ¡°I come bearing messages from Villius of the Eyes.¡±

    Mary snorted in amusement. ? Is he getting tired of losing eyes yet? ?

    Sin Tchai just stared. Then, somewhat hesitantly, he produced a sealed letter and small silk wrapped box.

    Mary sighed and accepted the two items. She placed the box on a small side table and opened the letter. Noting that Sin Tchai remained in place, she asked: ? Expectin¡¯ a reply? ?

    Sin Tchai jerked a nod and managed a hoarse, ¡°Yes.¡±

    Mary scanned the letter, surprised that it consisted of a single sheet of finest parchment.

    ? You can tell ¡¯im that I¡¯m willin¡¯ to see him. All he has to do is turn up, an¡¯ I promise to restrain my snakes. Now scram! ?

    She laughed when Sin Tchai vanished immediately. Then she turned and picked up the silk wrapped box. She tossed it up and down in her hand before putting it down again. Then she reached out for her other self, asking for a merge.

    Once the two Marys merged, they contemplated the letter. They called Trisha and Jerica in. The four of them examined the possibilities.

    ?? So we have ¨C one, to allow Villius an escape, let him spy in on our throne room in the Gods Realm on Ambuila ¨C Thoughts? ??

    ?? Agreed, Ambuila is the least important of our worlds at present. Irritatin¡¯ but acceptable. ??

    ?? Two, This gift ¨C do we accept? It will distract us ¨C at least to a degree. And no idea on what is on the other end. Bottom of the biggest body of water ¨C I/we don¡¯t like that description, not at all. ??

    ?? Agree ¨C we should at least check it out ¨C potential gains are interestin¡¯. ??

    ?? An¡¯ three, got to sharpen our game when it comes to takin¡¯ out irritatin¡¯ high gods. Hey calm down Trish, you too Jerica ¨C you both knew this was comin¡¯. An¡¯ we are not ready yet. But first, the southern Ice menace, him we can take. Then we will see ¡¯bout the black bearded one. ??

    ?? Agreed, check out this new place first. Very carefully in case it is a trap then... ??

    After their conference they ended their merge. Each Mary then spent some time calming her respective companion, before returning to their plotting.

    * * *The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    After her quick diversion to Earth Mary carefully unwrapped her gift. She inspected the sandstone statuette contained in the box. It depicted a strange creature, it was mostly flat, and its body was basically rectangular with rounded corners and bulging edges. A cluster of thin tentacles sprouted from each corner of the being. At the top a cluster of eyestalks gave all round vision and sat over a large toothless mouth. Mary understood that the bony bulge in the middle of the creature¡¯s body housed its brain.

    The creature was standing on a base that showed a map of the world. It looked very uninviting, it contained about a dozen large lakes clustered around the poles, none of them were larger than the Caspian Sea, and most were barely as large as Lake Superior.

    Then all the symbols that denoted cities, industry and clusters of population were far from any source of water.

    Carvings of the beings going about their daily lives surrounded the map. They seemed to walk on all ¡®fours¡¯ humping themselves a bit like caterpillars. And they seemed to spend a fair amount of time spread out absorbing the sunlight. Mary gained the impression that they ingested silicon and used sunlight for energy.

    The only thing that tempted her was the chance to examine a silicon based life form. Also there were no depictions of these beings worshiping anything. And they had propeller-powered aircraft, though not many of them. Their ground vehicles were armoured, well-streamlined and used tracks. She suspected there would be some vicious sand storms on this world.

    Cautiously, Mary slipped into her core. She moved the statuette to the edge of her domain, and then she infused some mana into the link that was built into it. A portal snapped open, destroying the statuette, and the link. Mary probed through the portal and ¨C very reluctantly claimed the location around it.

    Her new dungeon was devoid of life. It didn¡¯t surprise her, as the salinity of the shallow sea was at least as great as that of the Dead Sea on Earth. What did grab her attention was the ¡°moon¡±. It was a large blue green orb with swirling white clouds.

    ? Humph! Well Jerica, we have lots of work to do. Got to repurpose several of our planktons and other clear up options. On the other hand there are a lot of iterestin¡¯ an¡¯ valuable salts an¡¯ metals in this soup that passes for water. ?

    ? Yes we do Mary, but first please get to work on that potion template, we have to protect ourselves against that coronavirus mess. And don¡¯t forget to tell the dungeons on Earth about it. And you have to tell Frog and Oscar to tune their portals to exclude it. ?

    ? *sigh* Yes dear! ?

    * * * EARTH ¨C DUNGEON EXCHANGE * * *

    Blue Lagoon: In regards to the current global pandemic, don¡¯t forget that you all can produce potions as treasure. Cure Major Disease exists. It is expensive when it comes to mana. The template is on the exchange. The cost is the minimum Bluey will allow.

    Blackrock: What the hell? Why aren¡¯t you supplying this potion?

    Bet Your Life: Treasure? But for treasure there has to be a challenge, doesn¡¯t there?

    Blue Lagoon (cmp): Yes, but you are well set up for that Bet.

    Blackrock: That is lame, there has to be a way round that. You should be providing the potion Blue Lagoon. You must have the mana.

    Blue Lagoon (cmp): We are not a charity spider boy. And the challenge can be symbolic, but that way you won¡¯t recoup your investment.

    Arena of Blood: Jerica, how do we keep this thing out of Tarifax?

    Blue Lagoon (cmp): You can tune your portals to reject people who are ill Frog. Then people with the virus will not be able to use the portals. Oscar, please do the same. Dungeons that spread plague are not popular on any of the worlds we know.

    * * * EARTH ¨C BRAZIL / BEL¨¦M DO PAR¨¢ * * *

    After landing at the international airport of Bel¨¦m, Serena Amoyensis headed to reclaim her bag, and then she headed to passport control. She smiled politely, careful to keep her mouth closed so as not to intimidate the small humans with her fangs.

    Her metropolitan Portuguese already made her stand out, the fact that she was a Tiger beastfolk made her impossible to miss. Even so, her team of four Jaguar beastfolk, or on?a-pintada beastfolk as the locals would have it also caused a stir, even if their Brazilian Portuguese blended in nicely. The two Were-Jaguars slipped into the country without a ripple.

    Their baggage was meticulously examined, that was something they all had expected and counted on. As Serena had also counted on, their advanced storage devices were not detected. The locals were using the best magic detectors money could buy, but as they were provided by MagiTech... Serena grinned as she and her team entered the country with an extensive arsenal, equipment and gold. And potions ¨C never forget the potions.

    She flicked her jet-black hair over her shoulder, picked up her suitcase and headed out to catch a taxi. Next they would have to contact Daniel Azevedo and see to his safe establishment. She was becoming used to these missions, even if for this one she had a lot more firepower than usual.

 Chapter 149

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C CAPTAIN ROBIN GOODFELLOW * * *

    Robin grinned ruefully; he had not expected to be back here again. He gathered his team and they headed for the local Guild office to book a turn at the dungeon. The local town was new too, and obviously not used to see an adventurer party of Tiger beastfolk. The place was apparently called Dungeonville, not exactly a unique name, Robin personally knew of two other Dungeonvilles.

    After booking a couple of slots, he and his party settled in at one of the local inns. The Green Bat wasn¡¯t the worst inn he had stayed at; it was spotlessly clean which raised it above most.

    Three days later, just before Noon, they arrived at the entrance of the Spitting Cobra dungeon. They entered exactly at Noon. The first chamber was large and bare of defenders.

    ? Robin! Welcome to my home, do you want to challenge me, or do you just want to talk? ?

    Robin smiled, ¡°Hello Jong-Su, glad to see you are doing well. How is Ivy?¡±

    ? She¡¯s doing well and just as paranoid as ever. ?

    Robin chuckled, ¡°She has cause, Mother wants to collect a favour. You up for it?¡±

    The dungeon¡¯s telepathic voice became more serious, almost formal. ? Yes, we are more than willing. What does Mary need? ?

    ¡°She wants you to set up a section of your dungeon where delvers can locate Cure Disease potions. You have heard of the Coronavirus on Earth? Well, she wants to send some Earthlings here to gain cures.¡±

    ? I can do that. But I doubt there are any adventurers on Earth capable of winning against the level of challenges the System will demand for such a treasure. ?

    ¡°Mother has arranged for me to leave some adventurers here in Dungeonville to escort the poor newbies. She wants them to have to work for it.¡±

    ? Mmm, I can remodel part of my fourth level for basic Cure Disease potions, and my fifth for the more powerful Cure Serious Disease. Will that work? ?

    ¡°Yes Jong-Su, that will be perfect. Have you managed to convince your other you that you really exist yet?¡±

    ? Yes. But it took some doing. Email is not as effective as an intact link. By the way I love the internet connection Mary arranged. I missed my Manga fix. ?

    ¡°Fine, do you mind if we delve as far as your fifth level? Please feel free to ask us to stop at any time.¡±

    ? Feel free Robin. We owe you our freedom and sanity. ?

    * * * FRAGATTA¡¯S GOD¡¯S REALM ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary grinned as her court made room for their visitor. She noted that most of them were exceedingly wary of Villius of the Eyes. As for that greater god, well, by the way he was keeping his eyes close, he was most likely somewhat wary of her.

    Mary knew he wasn¡¯t scared of her, but it did her heart good to know that he was wary. ¡°Welcome to my court, lord Villius. Can I offer you refreshments, tea? Something stronger?¡±

    Villius stood very still, observing the lounging goddess on her partially submerged throne. ¡°I would welcome a cup of tea.¡±

    After taking tea, Villius ¨C reluctantly ¨C gave in to the inevitable and opened proceedings. ¡°I ¨C I need to be able to give the New Sages something. I want to...¡±

    Mary allowed the silence to grow for a few seconds. ¡°You want to stay out of the line of fire, you have seen their folly. At least I think you have, not being a total blockhead like the so called sages.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Villius too, allowed a few second of silence to pass. ¡°They risk all, at least one world has been lost due to their meddling. The Emperor sleeps, but ¨C but should he wake...¡±

    ¡°Fair enough, an¡¯ you want to be able to spy on me here. What do you expect to see?¡±

    ¡°Nothing of import ¨C just what you want me to see and pass on to the New Sages and their minions.¡±

    Mary examined the expressionless god carefully, ¡°I could live with that ¨C just so long as it is only here, and if I order your eyes out, they go for at least one hour.¡±

    ¡°How could I explain that?¡±

    ¡°Tell ¡¯em my snakes ate ¡¯em. You can sorta tell the truth, they have eaten a lot of ¡¯em.¡±

    Villius froze and sat still in contemplation. Then, reluctantly, he nodded.

    ¡°Now, what¡¯s with this world you¡¯ve opened to me? The one in the sky looks far nicer,¡± asked Mary.

    ¡°It¡¯s one of the unclaimed worlds. The locals are unbelievers. They acknowledge no gods. Thus I was able to open it to you. Its twin is more normal. If I opened that one to you, there would be a small chance I would be discovered,¡± explained Villius.

    ¡°An¡¯ if I send some followers there by space travel and set up shop?¡±

    ¡°You might be detected, but my hand will not be detected,¡± said Villius smugly.

    * * * EARTH ¨C OLIVER BROUSSETTE * * *

    Olli stepped out of the portal in the back room of the butcher shop. He nodded to Solon, the rather short, mournful looking dog man who was busy behind his computer.

    ¡°Welcome back to Earth, Mr. Brousette. Did everything go well?¡± asked Solon.

    Olli wriggled his shoulders in an attempt to relieve his tension. He smiled when his cousin Brandon emerged from the portal. ¡°Very well, thank you for asking. The adventurers you recommended were indispensible. They taught us a lot.¡±

    Solon cocked his head to one side, ¡°How are you going to get the potion to your father? If you don¡¯t mind me asking.¡±

    Olli shrugged, ¡°I will ask the attending doctor. Then there is one of the nurses who has minor healing abilities, she might help. If that doesn¡¯t work, then I will use magic. The hospital is still lacking in arcane defences, or cures.¡±

    ¡°Short sighted of them,¡± chuckled Solon.

    ¡°We haven¡¯t had magic long, Solon,¡± offered Brandon. ¡°Give us time.¡±

    Solon snorted, ¡°It has been over a year now. How much more time do you need?¡±

    Olli laughed, ¡°Another ten to twenty years.¡±

    * * *

    Olli was frustrated, not surprised in the least, but definitely frustrated. The doctors he had spoken to had flatly refused to allow him to use his hard won cure disease potion. He was thankful he hadn¡¯t taken it with him when he went to talk to them, or he suspected they would have taken it for ¡°testing¡±.

    He didn¡¯t even bother to try the nurse, he was scared that he would be arrested, just so they had an excuse to search his possessions and confiscate the potion. He was sure they believed he had lots of doses. They would never believe that dungeons on the other worlds worked differently to those on Earth.

    He had been surprised; the dungeon he had delved didn¡¯t interact with the adventurers. It was to all intents and purposes a predator.

    So, here he was with Brandon. They were observing the hospital under the light of the moon. They both missed the rest of the party of adventurers they had come to know on Parthia. The weasel-like mage, Gaaspur the Avaricious, with his illusions would be very useful at this moment. His sticky fingers on the other hand, could have proved disastrous.

    Settling his shadow-cape around his shoulders, Olli ¨C rather furtively ¨C entered the hospital, leaving Brandon acting as backup and sentry.

    Olli found it surprisingly easy to infiltrate the hospital. Intellectually this shouldn¡¯t have surprised him, but it did. Even ICU didn¡¯t cause any real challenge; it proved easy enough to follow one of the tired nurses through the closed doors.

    The problems started when it came time to give his father the potion. The old man was hooked up to an impressive number of monitors, and the respirator that was allowing him to keep breathing covered his mouth.

    Olli grasped his father¡¯s shoulder and gave it a brief shake. The old man woke, but Olli realized he was out if it, not truly aware of his surroundings. Olli produced his potion and removed the respirator. His father gasped like a landed fish. Making use of the opportunity Olli poured the potion down the old man¡¯s throat. He ignored the look of absolute disgust on his father¡¯s face at the taste of the potion. Olli made sure the old man had swallowed the potion before replacing the respirator.

    Several of the monitors were by now beeping and wailing their alarms, and Olli realized that he wouldn¡¯t be able to escape. He sent the text message he had previously prepared and stood quietly in a corner of the room to await the arrival of the nurses.

    To his surprise he wasn¡¯t noticed, enveloped as was by his cloak of shadows. The nurses were all too busy with his father. Olli took the opportunity to slip out of the room while everyone was distracted.

    Once he worked himself out of the hospital, Olli phoned Brandon.

    ¡°Olli? What¡¯s up? I haven¡¯t got to the station yet.¡±

    ¡°No need Brandon. I jumped the gun. They didn¡¯t spot me. Can you get back to our planned rendezvous?¡±

    ¡°Sure thing Olli. See ya soon.¡±

 Chapter 150

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Mary floated under the surface of the sea with Ocidon. They asserted their influence and forced the southern current to resume its original course. They were forced to insist, they observed with appreciation as this meant that cooler waters were able to filter into the Great Southern Bay for the first time in well over a century.

    Then Ocidon in his guise of Earthshaker exerted himself while his consort kept the warm waters of the southern current flowing south.

    The earthquake threw up a long ridge of rock, and incidentally sent a tsunami racing into the Great Southern Bay. The other shore of the sea was too far for the corresponding tsunami to cause much damage.

    Ocidon and Mary contemplated their work and felt satisfied, albeit for different reasons. Ocidon regarded reclaiming the Great Southern Bay to be key. By reducing the temperature of its waters he foresaw the reclamation of its shores for his worshipers. Mary maintained her attention on the warm current, now washing against the sea ice in the south, and welcomed its reduction, and the rage it would throw Ice Heart, the god of the southern icelands into.

    * * * EARTH ¨C FALSTAFF MIDDLE SCHOOL * * *

    Snakey observed his domain with displeasure. With the exception of himself and his four guardians it was empty thanks to the lockdown. He had finally managed to claim the entirety of the school grounds, but it had taken him far longer than he had hoped. And now he was rather low on mana.

    It was late in the afternoon that he detected the two intruders. He observed them as they jumped the fence behind the gym. He was surprised that they were both armed, the bigger of the two had a small snub nosed pistol that his evaluate told him was a .38 S&W. The other had a pair of knives. Both sported crude tattoos.

    Snakey alerted his Borribles, and they moved to intercept the intruders. Snakey resisted their desire to take on the two intruders.

    In his attempts to rein in his over eager guardians, Snakey almost missed what the intruders were saying. When he realized that the two were the ones that had left the drugs in the hidey-hole he had discovered while expanding his domain. And from their complaints he learned that they were frustrated that his pupils, their customers and runners, were currently out of their reach.

    He decided he wanted to know more, so that he could root out that kind of behaviour in his school, he had to keep his pupils safe after all. Sighing, he activated the pit trap he had set up in front of the cache.

    Jack gave a bloodthirsty grin when he realized that their dungeon had changed his mind. The four borribles shared a look of complete understanding before scurrying to lay their ambush. They knew just where the involuntary adventurers were headed after all.

    Snakey watched as his borribles beat the two dealers to the cache, and squirmed into their hiding places. He hoped they wouldn¡¯t be needed.

    Not long after the two intruders arrived at their cache. The smaller of the two stood back slightly, keeping watch, while the one armed with the revolver stepped directly onto the now activated pit trapped and dropped through its weak dirt cover with a cry of alarm.

    The knife armed one spun around when he heard his friend¡¯s cry, ¡°¡¯Milio, Wha¡ª¡±

    Jill stepped into sight on the other side of the pit trap and waved the bag they had left in their hidey-hole. ¡°Wotcha mate... Lookin¡¯ fer these?¡± she taunted as she shook the plastic bag.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    The intruder produced one of his knives and took to impulsive steps towards Jill before stopping. He was just preparing to step around the pit containing the cursing Emilio when Jack and one of the other borribles ran into him, pushing him into the pit to join his friend.

    The four borribles had some fun chucking rocks onto the two trapped men before piling into the pit to subdue them.

    Snakey watched his guardians drag the two intruders to one of his subterranean rooms. Not long after he shuddered and turned his attention to other things, leaving his guardians to conduct the interrogation.

    He reset the trap, just in case, and deactivated it. Then he checked his system messages and accepted the skills it offered his two oldest guardians. Jill gained Taunt, while Jack obtained Intimidate.

    * * * AMBUILA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Markowitz drained the coconut he was holding. He still wanted a drink or two, but it was getting easier. He leaned back against the doorpost of his hut as he looked over the dark waters of the sea. He was waiting for the dawn, to his surprise he found himself looking forward to seeing the sun rise over the horizon.

    He had levelled several times recently, and his hunting had improved. He rubbed the scar on his left forearm, considering that sometimes it was a rather dangerous occupation. But he missed matching wits against people. And having powerful friends.

    Breakfast was, as usual, a fishy tasting porridge that he now knew was made from the dried fast growing seaweed that grew so abundantly just offshore.

    Not long after he trotted inland with his spears and traps. He passed several rather pregnant women. He was still surprised at how solicitously they were treated by the rough villagers. And at how few children there were in the village considering the number of pregnancies.

    When the sun was well overhead, he produced his lunch and settled down to eat. He was surprised by a shadow passing by. He looked around, then up. And there, sailing by overhead, was a flying ship. By the two turrets he could discern it was exceptionally well armed for this place.

    Markowitz¡¯s heart leapt, and he jumped to his feet. Then he cursed as he made out the flag in the stern, a blue green field with a white dolphin.

    He crouched down amongst the grass and watched one of the damn girl¡¯s airships fly by heading in the direction of the village. ¡°Guess it¡¯s time to relocate again,¡± he told himself.

    * * * EARTH ¨C OLIVER BROUSSETTE * * *

    Olli disconnected the call from his sister. He gazed out of the window at his front yard. Slowly, he turned and walked up to his comfortable armchair. Once there he collapsed bonelessly into its embrace.

    After some time gazing blankly at the ¨C rather amateurish ¨C landscape that he had hanging on his wall. Almost without thought he looked at his phone, then he hit the speed dial for Frog.

    ¡°Morning Olli. How did it go?¡±

    ¡°Morning Frog ¨C good ¨C err, I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m not sure I understand what happened. Dad¡¯s out of intensive care, but they are keeping him in hospital. They say he¡¯s much better ¨C but ¨C they say his cancer is cured! He¡¯s still got the virus ¨C but its asymptomatic at present.¡±

    There was a sigh at the other end, and then Frog spoke, ¡°Pity. One of Mother¡¯s clergy could have cured the cancer. I assume the potion cured the more serious disease. As I understand it, in most cases a standard cure disease will work. You only need a cure serious disease spell or potion when it has progressed to life threatening.¡±

    ¡°So, what are you saying? And how can Mother¡¯s priests cure cancer and not the coronavirus?¡±

    Frog chuckled, ¡°Sorry Olli, I didn¡¯t mean to laugh, but hearing you call her Mother... Look, Mother likes playing with DNA. Her priests have gained the ability to handle minor fixes to DNA, and to bring their subjects up to spec, so to speak. That allows the more advanced ones to fix cancer. I believe they have no real answer to germs and viruses.¡±

    ¡°But... But, that¡¯s huge Frog.¡±

    Frog chuckled again. ¡°Yeah, but they take after Mother. They collect favours. Nothing is truly free unless you are a bona fide worshiper.¡±

    Olli stared at his landscape, ¡°I¡¯ve got to... So if I turn up in Parthia with someone who is suffering from a genetic disease. It can be fixed?¡±

    ¡°Depends, but yeah, most likely.¡±

    Olli sighed, ¡°Guess I¡¯ve gotta break into that hospital again. You sure a standard cure disease will work?¡±

    Frog paused for a second as he consulted his System Dungeon Interface. ¡°If he¡¯s asymptomatic, even a minor cure disease will work.¡±

    ¡°Thanks Frog. After I visit my father again, I¡¯ve got to go back to Parthia.¡±

 Chapter 151

    * * * EARTH ¨C NYC * * *

    Phil was in a hurry. He cursed the fact that he needed to replace his Metro Card. He trotted down the stairs into the station. Looking around, he made his way to where three vending machines stood against the wall.

    He shouted in surprise when his hand became firmly glued to the thing. He cursed what he thought was a stupid prank by the local youths. Then he screamed in terror when the machine moved, a huge toothy mouth opened and a long, prehensile blue tongue slapped out and wrapped itself around his waist.

    His screams stopped as he was pulled into the mimic¡¯s mouth and it closed cutting him in half.

    The mimic gave a satisfied burp, and then it used its tongue to drag Phil¡¯s legs into its mouth. Not long after that it licked up the blood that had been left behind on the concrete floor.

    * * *

    Logan Brown ¨C teenage necromancer ¨C made his way through the partially deserted streets of New York City. He was looking around with a mix of apprehension and curiosity. In front of their little group strode Anubis, his boss, guard, and parole officer. Bringing up the rear of their little group came two well-armed agents of the paranormal division.

    Logan kept remembering Anubis explaining their current mission; apparently several people had gone missing in the last couple of weeks here in New York. And the majority had vanished while travelling. So his jackal headed black furred boss had been sent to check for vampires.

    As they headed down the stairs of yet another subway station, Logan stretched out with innate ability, seeking out the undead. He started to relax as he failed to locate any.

    They were headed for the bank of turnstiles when Anubis slowed, and came to a stop, nose in the air. Logan got the distinct impression that his boss was puzzled. He had never seen him sniff the air like this before.

    ¡°Can you smell it?¡± asked Anubis as he scanned the big room. ¡°It stinks of death, as if someone died before the fates decreed it.¡±

    ¡°What the F are you on about boss? I can¡¯t smell anything special,¡± offered Spike.

    ¡°Huh! What about you boy?¡± asked Anubis as he stared at the wall with the most vending machines.

    ¡°There are no undead within my detection range Anubis, and I can¡¯t smell anything putrid either,¡± said Logan.

    Anubis sniffed again, then he moved towards where three metro card vending machines stood, in semi-isolation. ¡°You must be able to smell something, even with your feeble noses. I can smell at least two deaths...¡±

    Logan, Spike and Carter shared a look, and shrugged in unison. Then Spike and Carter started searching their surroundings for danger.

    Anubis examined the machine on the end of the row with surprise. He reached out to touch it, ¡°This one smells different, it...¡±

    Anubis realized he had made a mistake when his finger stuck to the ¡®vending machine¡¯. Before he could pull away the thing bulged up, wrapping his hand in its tissue. Then the mimic opened its mouth and reached out with its tongue.

    Spike acted on instinct. Anubis was lucky that his form was considerably stronger than the average human. Even so if Spike hadn¡¯t reacted so quickly, he would probably have been killed.

    It took Spike almost one entire clip to kill the mimic. In death it assumed its real appearance.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Carter looked around with wild eyes, ¡°Damn it Cap. We have more than two missing, there must be more of these things. How in hell are we going to find them all?¡±

    * * *

    In a dusty forgotten corner of Earth¡¯s Gods Realm something stirred, once again it had felt the call. It was almost awake now, and once again it thought gleefully: ¡®soon, very soon my wait will be over.¡¯ Reluctantly it relapsed once again into its dreams.

    * * * DOBAY ¨C HOSLICK OF THE TWO DAWNS * * *

    Hoslick left the shelter of a dark mass of stones and glided across a few meters of sandy plain. He navigated his way through a collection of crystalline growths that resembled a thorny barrier.

    Red light blinked briefly as Hoslick heaved himself up, curling backward, his edge rippling, to stand on the flattened rim of his encircling sphincter. Hoslick scrabbled with his prehensile fringe-tentacles for a moment and opened the door closing the cave-like entrance to the comfort-dome.

    Inside Hoslick glided over the burgundy coloured glass floor avoiding the few scattered decorative silk rugs. He looked with appreciation at the low table of polished red granite that stretched down the centre of the spacious room, set with silver dishes and rose-crystal drinking-tubes.

    There was a sudden rasp, like leather against concrete, as another Dobayan rose from where he had been lounging in a sand tub. With a flurry of sand Deltin of the Florescent Ribbons rippled his fringe-tentacles in a grin.

    ¡°Welcome to our humble club house Hoslick. Please make yourself comfortable.¡±

    Hoslick settled himself next to the table and picked up one of the drinking-tubes. Hoslick saluted Deltin with his drink and then sipped it. He shuddered, ¡°Ahh! Now that hit the spot. You always have the best booze Deltin.¡±

    ¡°True. Now, what do you have to report? What is happening with that sea-lake?¡±

    ¡°A dungeon Deltin. Can you credit it? A bloody dungeon has formed at the bottom of Tissin sea-lake, and the damn thing is spewing microscopic carbon based life forms.¡±

    ¡°Carbon based? Are you... Sorry, of course you¡¯re sure. What kind of treasures do you think it will produce?¡± asked a puzzled Deltin.

    Hoslick rippled his fringe-tentacles uncertainly. ¡°Not a clue, but it is purifying the water, I believe there are a few esoteric uses for that stuff.¡±

    ¡°So, scientific interest at least. Not a total loss. But we don¡¯t have enough bloody dungeons, why did one have to set up shop in such an awkward location?¡± asked an irritated Deltin.

    The two friends sipped their drinks quietly, crunching on some tasty artificial sapphires. Finally Deltin ordered. ¡°Put a scientific team, get a professor of esoterics, a carbon specialist if there is one and a few graduate students and get them down there. Take a few guards; the thing is a dungeon after all. Try to entice them, but you have the government¡¯s authority to shanghai them if necessary.¡±

    ¡°Shanghai?¡± asked Hoslick in mock surprise.

    Deltin grinned, ¡°Draft them.¡±

    ¡°Ah! Will do,¡± agreed Hoslick with a sadistic grin.

    * * * EARTH ¨C IN THE NEWS * * *

    The unexpected happened during one of the televised services by the hellfire preacher Pastor Zachariah Beddows. The pastor who has several times erroneously claimed that the world would end, and most recently linked his last such prophecy to the blue screen phenomenon, something he claims is one of the devil¡¯s works.

    This Sunday Beddows was in full flow when he seemed to suffer a fit. He started stabbing the air in front of his face and screaming about demons.

    The Pastor grew horns on air, his skin started turning red. In one of the swiftest transformations on record Pastor Beddows turned into a Minor Demon complete with hooves, horns and leathery wings.

    Most experts when asked for comments were unable to explain how the transformation occurred in so short a span of time. The most logical theory was that the concentration of belief in the venue was utilized by System to facilitate the integration.

    The editor of the Babylon Bee complained that it is becoming very hard to write satirical news articles in these days.

    * * *

    Ms Loisdottir the spokesperson for MagiTech inc., confirmed today that their improved Atmospheric Control enchanted items could be tuned to prevent the passage of germs and viruses. Ms Loisdottir apologises for the fact that there is no way the company can keep up with demand for this product, and that MagiTech will do its best to handle their backlog.

    When asked about why these improved items were ten times as expensive than the rings with the older enchantment, Ms Loisdottir merely shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

    MagiTech inc has offered to licence this enchantment to competent enchanters.

    * * *

    A coalition of citizens rights groups are taking the city authorities in New York to the courts to protest their plans to install IR equipped CCTV cameras throughout the cities¡¯ underground stations and other public spaces.

 Chapter 152

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MARY * * *

    Hovering partially in the Gods Realm Mary waited in ambush. Her octopus form lurked beneath the leading edge of the melting sea ice. She shivered at the cold that seemed to be attacking her.

    Sensing a vibration in the ice she stilled. It looked like Ice Heart was coming to inspect the damage, just as he had every morning for the past fortnight. Mary felt Ice Heart¡¯s mana pour into the surroundings as the god of the southern ice lands sought to divert her current and shore up his sea ice.

    Then the mana flow ceased, rather abruptly, and Mary knew Ice Heart had sensed something.

    She moved and struck. Two tentacles wrapped around the god¡¯s waist and legs. Mary pulled, yanking Ice Heart partially into the sea. He for his part gripped the ice and tried to haul her to the surface.

    The two titans struggled, still partially in the real world. Ice shattered and the seas splashed wildly.

    The fight moved south as Ice Heart sought to avoid becoming submerged. Blood flowed as both inflicted massive wounds to the other. Ice Heart using icy daggers whilst Mary tore at him with her tentacles and bit him with her beak, injecting poison.

    One by one the New Gods materialized behind their champion, while the Old Gods did likewise behind Mary. They all strove to contain the damage that was being caused by the fighting.

    Reluctantly Mary realized that now that the sea was merely thigh deep on Ice Heart that they were too evenly matched. For a while she fought on despite her better judgement. And because Ice Heart had a firm grip on one of her tentacles.

    Twisting valiantly she managed to snap her beak shut on his wrist, severing it. After a shocked moment she expelled water and withdrew northward to where the sea was deeper. There she stopped and prepared to renew the fight.

    Ice Heart snarled in rage but declined to enter his opponent¡¯s domain. He cradled his left arm and worked to regrow his missing hand.

    For the better part of a day the two glared at each other, then slowly, as if by mutual consent they slowly withdrew.

    Irked that she hadn¡¯t been strong enough, Mary took one last look at the shattered ice before turning to head home. She had regained nearly one hundred and fifty kilometres of sea from the ice. The warm southern current was still flowing so Ice Heart would be unable to claw back all that much. She had to be satisfied with that for now.

    As she made her way back to the tropics she barely noted the signs of damage that had been caused by her battle, the shores of the narrow sea were covered by debris and stranded icebergs. The few towns were battered, but looked better than the rest. Mary realised Ocidon had been at work.

    Once back at Blue Lagoon Mary materialized in her audience hall, she tossed Ice Hearts severed left hand onto the floor in front of her throne before collapsing into it. She sat back, careful of her wounds and stared at her trophy. Now that she was in the heart of her domain her wounds started closing ¨C albeit slowly.

    After half an hour or so she became more aware of her surroundings, she looked around at her court and winced. ¡°Got to find somewhere to put trophies. Don¡¯t mind the hand, it used to belong to Ice Heart. Guess it is dungeon treasure now.¡±

    After staring at Ice Heart¡¯s hand for some time, Mary looked up, pouted and departed for the gods realm. She materialised in Ocidon¡¯s home. Ocidon welcomed her, but Mary noted that he wasn¡¯t particularly pleased.

    ¡°So, do you count that as a win?¡± he asked.

    Mary pouted again, ¡°No, it was a draw, I had thought he was weaker than that.¡±This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Ocidon sighed, ¡°Don¡¯t be so reckless in future. The New Gods are able to share their worshipers. Just like any properly set up pantheon.¡±

    Mary narrowed her eyes in thought.

    ¡°Stop plotting, think. You¡¯ve been doing well so far. Don¡¯t get overconfident. We can and will win. Please don¡¯t throw it all away because you are getting impatient.¡± Ocidon watched Mary carefully, ¡°We did make progress today, the New Gods had to support Ice Heart. That allowed several of us to improve our positions.¡±

    As Mary started to relax, Ocidon added, ¡°But not me, I had to protect our followers in the coastal towns of the Narrow Sea from the swarm of near Tsunamis your fight caused.¡±

    ¡°Um, how come, I¡¯m not usually that large?¡± queried Mary.

    Ocidon sighed again, ¡°You were both partially in the gods realm when you fought. That greatly magnified the results of your fight in the real world. For the heavens sake, Mary, think out the consequences of your actions.¡±

    Ocidon shook his head ruefully, ¡°Congratulations on the results, you forced the New Gods to actively support Ice Heart with the strength of their followers. Something we Old Gods didn¡¯t need to do in your case. But that is going to cause you problems in future.¡±

    ¡°But, how was I able to take out the narcissist on Ambuila? If the New Gods can share worshipers?¡± Asked Mary.

    ¡°It is difficult to transfer that kind of support across worlds. I suspect you didn¡¯t give them enough time.¡±

    * * * PARTHIA ¨C MEADOWS * * *

    Captain Meadows perused the ExPat Chronicle with some interest. He wondered idly for how long Mary would tolerate its existence. Admittedly it hadn¡¯t published anything groundbreaking, being basically a local gossip rag for the Earth natives on Parthia.

    He noted that it mentioned the upcoming departure of the Paul Jones, and the upcoming commissioning of ships belonging to the UK, France and Russia. He wondered how long it would take China to take an interest too.

    He placed the weekly paper on one of the scattered small tables in the embassy lounge and headed out. He was due at the harbour soon.

    Meadows watched the newly commissioned USS John Paul Jones leave harbour under sail. Her captain had looked as if he wasn¡¯t sure whether he had won or lost the lottery. They had bought the clipper from Mary, and then they had completely reequipped and rearmed her. They hadn¡¯t found any bugs, but none of them were sure she was bug free.

    The scary part was that their latest navigation aids all worked. This had caused some waves back at the Pentagon. Just what tech did Mary have access to? And what kind of satellites did she have orbiting the planet?

    The USS John Paul Jones carried a marine detachment, several disgruntled diplomats and a team of delighted scientists. Meadows hoped they found somewhere that would welcome one of their bases... ah, embassies.

    He watched a bit longer before making his way back to the embassy. As he walked, his mind slipped back to the sight of that giant blue crystal hand that had been lying on the floor of Mary¡¯s reception room. It shook him that everyone believed ¨C truly believed ¨C that it was the hand of a god.

    And as for Mary, she had looked battered and bruised. And she hadn¡¯t been hiding her wounds from anyone.

    He found it all to be in bad taste; he would never have guessed that Mary would want to collect that kind of trophy. It certainly seemed to impress the local dignitaries, and as for the locals... Well, he wasn¡¯t sure what they truly thought about it.

    Soon as he got back to his office he was planning to see what Tod ¨C as a dungeon ¨C thought about it.

    * * * AMBUILA ¨C MARKOWITZ * * *

    Markowitz had dithered for almost the entire day, and then he had seen the airship heading back the way it had come.

    Very cautiously he had made his way back to the village. Once in sight of it he had used one of the low rises to look it over. He had been unable to see anyone new, or any signs that one of the flimsy huts was occupied.

    Despite being ready to bolt at any moment, he picked up the two giant horned marmosets he had caught that day and made his way into the village as if nothing was wrong.

    As soon as they saw him, the villagers assailed him with the news. It was the most exciting and unusual thing that had happened in the village¡¯s history. A flying ship that could move without sails, even against the wind. And the people on board weren¡¯t fully human.

    The village headman was deliriously happy. He had been able to swindle the strange cat and wolf men. They had traded metal fishhooks and a few knives for their dried and salted fish. And the wives had gained some superb mirrors.

    Markowitz winced, a few cheap trinkets for near on half a ton of preserved fish. And then the headman had handed him a letter the visitors had left for him.

    Markowitz had retired to his hut, having had to speak to almost all the gossip hungry villagers.

    He opened the envelope and withdrew the single sheet of paper it contained.

    ¡°Mr Markowitz,

    I hope you are enjoying your new life. I can assure you that I have no intention of bothering myself with you, despite what your patron gods desire.

    That is, unless you continue trying to irritate me.

    Mary Silvestre, Mother of Monsters.¡±

    Markowitz folded the letter carefully with shaking hands. He felt a curious measure of relief and rage.

    ¡°Just you wait, Ms Silvestre. I¡¯ll grow strong again ¨C then we¡¯ll see who¡¯s boss,¡± he shouted at the roof of his hut in English.

 Chapter 153

    * * * DOBAY ¨C HOSLICK OF THE TWO DAWNS * * *

    Hoslick was using a convenient boulder to rear his front end up. His front eyes were focused on his portable magnifier¡¯s lens. The large metal covered ¨C thing ¨C that had just emerged from the surface of Sea-Lake Tissin just kept rising smoothly into the sky.

    The damn thing was clearly sheathed in metal. It had no wings and no propellers, no visible means of propulsion. And it just kept climbing into the sky. The few specialists he had in this hellhole were of no use. The situation had seemed to call for specialists in carbon life forms, not dobayans knowledgeable in aeronautics.

    His guard force was scrambling to react to this potential threat. But, weaponry useful in exploring dungeons was not of much use when it came to aerial warfare. He had ordered their flying wing scrambled. Not that it was armed for combat. But needs must.

    At least the damn impossibility didn¡¯t seem hostile. It just kept climbing into the sky. Ignoring all their radio messages. Hoslick found it intensely frustrating.

    * * *

    Hoslick of the Two Dawns sprawled at the head of the long low pink granite table. He studied several reports with two of his eyes while using the other three to watch what could loosely be called the leaders and specialists of this dungeon settlement.

    When finally the last of those he had invited to this meeting trickled in, Hoslick placed his papers on the table and focused his full attention on those present. He tapped the papers he had been studying with one of his fringe-tentacles. ¡°I have here reports from our air traffic control radar station, from two observatories, and from the weather bureau.

    ¡°According to air traffic control, that thing ¨C whatever it is ¨C rose vertically and swiftly crossed the area they normally monitor. The two observatories were able to retask their searches, that thing left our atmosphere and is now accelerating at ninety percent of one gravity. It is heading directly for the blue moon, the hell planet.

    ¡°The pilot and crew of our flying wing were unable to catch the thing. It rose far faster than the wing could. The weather bureau was able to confirm the data obtained by our other sources.

    ¡°So, unbelievable as it seems, we have witnessed an interplanetary craft that uses unknown technology or magic to ¨C to fly and travel above the atmosphere.¡±

    Hoslick looked around the table at his stunned subordinates.

    The first to recover his senses was professor Daalanor of the Obscure Thoughts. He beamed with excitement, ¡°Much as I find this situation promising, I honestly don¡¯t understand why I am present at this meeting. Interplanetary craft seem to have little to do with carbon life forms, much less a dungeon, even one as bizarre as this one.¡±

    Hoslick flicked several of his fringe-tentacles in a dismissive gesture, ¡°You are currently the most senior dobayan present that is trained in the scientific method. And I am fairly sure that thing came from the dungeon.¡±

    Daalanor cudgelled his brains for some kind of explanation. ¡°Do you think someone from the blue moon, our sister planet, arrived here before we were aware of the dungeon, or that they seeded it? I must say, that from what I know of the blue moon that seems unlikely. It contains so much water. It seems unlikely that intelligence would arise.¡±

    Hoslick signed agreement. ¡°But it is a possibility we must take into consideration. The Security Directorate is currently recruiting specialists to study this occurrence. An air defence detachment is being rushed to this location.

    ¡°Boriintant, see to enlarging the settlement. I suspect our population will more than double, and we will need secure, defensible accommodations for everyone

    Daalanor waved a set of fringe-tentacles for attention, ¡°I recommend you get a team of linguists and translators. Or a mage specializing in translation magic, should one still exist.¡±

    * * * EARTH ¨C SHADOW * * *

    Shadow¡¯s tail was lashing with his displeasure; his brain felt overfull with two new languages and several new skills. It would not have been as bad if the specialized anti headache potions didn¡¯t taste so foul.

    He inspected the new top of the line laptop and tablet. He rubbed his forehead as he tried to absorb the new knowledge, only the fact that Dona had also gone through this kept him from going to find something to kill.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    He inspected the Ford he had selected; chosen for the simple fact that it wasn¡¯t the latest model, and that there were thousands of them on the roads of this country. He didn¡¯t want anything flashy or eye catching. He much preferred to blend into the shadows.

    Shadow turned to the disgruntled mechanic. The wolf boy had tried to foist a Ferrari on him, and before that a peculiar looking motorcycle. He much preferred this discreetly modified Ford. ¡°Thanks Billy, I¡¯ll be off now. How successful do you think the mithril body panels will be, and what¡¯s the point of the liftwood?¡±

    ¡°Be cool, Cat Man. She¡¯s nicely armoured, ¡¯specially with the enchants. As for the liftwood, maybe youse can only lift her a lil bit, but tha¡¯ means you won¡¯t get stuck, and skim over nail strips an¡¯ things. Wish you¡¯da let me play with the Ferrari though.¡±

    Shadow restrained his desire to hiss at the mechanic. He opened the Ford¡¯s door and got in. The car started up smoothly and Shadow nosed it out of the garage. Switching on the satnav Shadow headed west.

    * * *

    Shadow was getting tired of sitting behind the wheel by the time he arrived at Colorado Springs. He enjoyed the view of a colourful modern city that appeared to be built among trees in front of a wall of high mountains. He slowed to admire the view, and grinned in appreciation as the sun sank behind the hills.

    Then he was driving amongst the buildings. He parked near a takeaway pizza restaurant and spent some money. He placed the boxes on the back seat and continued on his way.

    Ten minutes later he was parking between two streetlights near a somewhat dilapidated house that was set in an overgrown garden. He pulled the hood of his hoodie over his head and collected the pizza boxes. Checking to see if anyone was around he made his way towards the house¡¯s front door.

    Balancing the pizza boxes on an overlarge mailbox, he scanned the house for spells or enchantments. He was unsurprised to find none, not even the simple kinds anyone with even the smallest amount of magical talent were capable off. Smiling slightly he checked his phone and sent the pre-arranged message to Mycroft. Then he used the simplest of lock picking spells to open the door.

    Shadow wrinkled his nose in distaste at the smell that wafted from the interior of the house. With a faint sniff of distaste he stepped in, placed the pizza boxes on a cluttered side table and closed the door quietly behind him. Hearing the sound of someone typing on a keyboard he made his way there.

    He found the homeowner typing away madly at the keyboard of a large and expensive looking tower unit. He was cursing at the screen that showed a large pop-up window, the message on the window read, ¡®Computer Locked¡¯.

    Shadow chuckled, ¡°Baggin2. You really shouldn¡¯t have tried to mess with Mycroft.¡±

    The gangly unshaven young man spun round in his chair and gaped at the shadow-shrouded shape standing by the open doorway of his computer room. ¡°This is nothing, man, I¡¯ll soon get rid of your ransom ware and then we¡¯ll see.¡±

    Shadow clicked his tongue, ¡°What makes you think you¡¯ll have a later, you messed with Mycroft, and have tried to slander Mother. You have aided some of those antifa louts, and they targeted a couple of Mother¡¯s portal shops. Not clever of you.¡±

    ¡°Fine, you¡¯ve delivered your warning. I understand you know where I live. Go tell Mycroft I understand.¡±

    ¡°You really don¡¯t understand, Baggin2,¡± replied Shadow as he drew his sword and thrust.

    Baggin2 stared at the sword sticking out of his chest with disbelief before slumping in his chair. Shadow withdrew the sword, cleaned it on the dead man¡¯s sweatshirt and left. As he left the monitor unfroze, then flickered and showed one of the FBI¡¯s secure sites.

    As Shadow left the house the monitor locked again, this time with a rather official, and very threatening message.

    Shadow left Colorado Springs still heading west.

    By the time Shadow had arrived in Provo he had long since changed the plates on his car. He pulled in at the Hyatt Place hotel, he grinned at the sight of the courthouse next door as he made his way to reception to claim his reservation.

    He enjoyed the mountain views before heading for bed. He also determined to visit the Brigham Young University Museum of Art. After all, it was not often that Mycroft volunteered that kind of a recommendation.

    * * * EARTH ¨C BLACKROCK * * *

    Ever since Sarge had warned him, Fin had been anxiously awaiting developments. He wasn¡¯t too sure if he would be able to help with this new monster, whatever it was. Then, finally, it had arrived.

    Fin used his senses to examine the cage. Its iron bars had been wrapped in several layers of chicken wire. Incongruously, sitting in the middle of the cage was a brass bound chest; it looked like a fantasy treasure chest.

    His dungeon senses told him that this was a very young Mimic.

    ? Sarge, tell the Colonel that it¡¯s a young Mimic. They are ambush hunters capable of pretending to be any number of inanimate objects. ?

    Sarge flitted onto one of his preferred platforms, this one head high to a normal human. He looked at Colonel Anderson and relayed his dungeon core¡¯s message.

    ¡°We had figured most of that out already. Glad for the confirmation, Sergeant. So, Fin says it¡¯s young, I assume that means they can get stronger?¡±

    Fin had been frantically searching the data store that the System provided for mid ranked dungeon cores.

    ? Sarge, Mimics can get bigger and stronger, doing more damage with their attacks and becoming harder to kill. They can gain a rudimentary intelligence if they live long enough. Also ¨C err ¨C they often offer their services to ¨C um ¨C dungeons. ?

    Sarge passed all that along too. Colonel Anderson rubbed his chin. ¡°Well now,¡± he said, ¡°what else can Fin tell me Sarge?¡±

    ? Um, not much, that is basically everything available to me in the System¡¯s data bank. I might be able to learn more if they allow me to absorb it ¨C but that would give us access to Mimics. ?

    On receiving the relayed message, the colonel shook his head. ¡°Not yet, the white coated brigade still have many tests they want to do. Maybe after that.¡±

    Fin watched as the Mimic in its cage was wheeled out of his domain. He felt a pang at the missed opportunity.

 Chapter 154

    * * * DOBAY ¨C HOSLICK OF THE TWO DAWNS * * *

    A party wipe! A frigging party wipe! And it was their own fault. The damn dungeon was probably laughing itself sick, that is, if it could laugh. They had miscalculated badly, but in their defence they had not considered the properties of water when it came to electricity.

    Once again Hoslick watched the recording of the disaster. The obscenely flexible dungeon monsters gave him the shudders. The dungeon¡¯s first success came with the long thin creature, the one with the circular mouth. It ripped a hole in the convict-worker¡¯s armoured water suit. The influx of water had caused a short in the doomed bastards suicide charge. The shaped charge bolted to his carapace had promptly blown his brains out. Hoslick considered that a merciful death, much preferable to the agony caused by the dissolving of the various salt nodes necessary for life.

    The real surprise came with the clouds of black ink that the smaller monsters had produced, that stuff greatly increased the water¡¯s ability to conduct electricity even as it impeded magic. It just took one convict-worker triggering his electric rod for the disaster to happen. All the convicts covered by the ink cloud had been affected. Their suicide charges had been triggered when the unexpected combination of circumstances had blocked the beamed signal.

    The dungeon creatures seemed to be resistant, almost immune to electricity. The surviving party member, the sergeant in charge of the work detail hadn¡¯t stood a chance on his own.

    Hoslick turned in disgust from the monitor running the depressing film. He flicked two switches and, rather reluctantly, returned his attention to it now, the screen was split in two; on the larger section it was showing the feed from their drone. The drone¡¯s camera was showing the small matt black disk floating on the surface of the sea. He could just make out the cable that was holding it in position disappearing into the depths. The other part of the screen was displaying seemingly random characters and static.

    The scientists believed that the signal that was being beamed from space was some kind of encrypted video feed. They were working frantically to decipher it.

    * * * EARTH ¨C SHADOW * * *

    Shadow was not impressed by the museum¡¯s articulated triangular shape, frankly he found it somehow lacking. He freely acknowledged to himself that his tastes ran more to the traditional, Parthian styles of architecture. He did however enjoy many of the exhibits, and he had lots of fun using his specialised illusions to play with the staff. Mycroft had warned him that the museum filmed, photographed, and recorded visitors for educational and promotional uses.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    So by the time Shadow called it a day, those recordings included a besuited humanoid dragon puffing away on a Cuban cigar, the president walking arm in arm with the speaker of the house, a kzin drooling over other visitors and a klingon admiral.

    * * *

    Next day found him once again on the road. It wasn¡¯t a long journey this time, just a matter of two hours. After an early lunch at a roadside diner that commended itself to him by the number of trucks parked outside, Shadow made his way to the local nursing home.

    After making use of the documents supplied by Mycroft he joined Dr Piraeus Jacobs. Jacobs had an air of suppressed anxiety as he peered at the small catman.

    ¡°Mr Shadow, forgive me but do I know you?¡±

    Shadow felt a slight twinge of compassion; he smiled and replied, ¡°No Dr Jacobs, this is the first time we have met.¡±

    Jacobs blinked and seemed relieved, ¡°why did you want to see me?¡±

    ¡°My principal has need of someone with your speciality. She believes she has a unique package that will entice you out of retirement. She has found a unique location with several unique life forms. They appear at first sight to be silicon based.¡±

    Jacobs leant forward in his chair, then he slumped back looking defeated. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I forget things, constantly. I could recommend Dr Wendy Forrester....¡±

    Shadow shook his head even as he produced a small potion bottle. ¡°My principal had a nurse take a sample of your blood a few weeks ago to enable her to produce this. This potion will rejuvenate you by ten years. I have two others. This is a targeted potion, it is poisonous for anyone other than yourself.¡±

    Jacobs eyed the potion with disbelief.

    Shadow grinned and ¨C persuaded ¨C Jacobs to take the potion. ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a week for your answer, and you might like to study the proposed contract of employment.¡±

    Shadow rose, dropped a thin folder on the side table by Jacobs¡¯ side and left, deftly avoiding the burly male nurse who had been dispatched to stop him, due to the CCTV recording of the meeting.

    * * * PARTHIA & FRAGATTA ¨C MARY & MARY * * *

    Thankfully things were quiet on Parthia as Mary was only half paying attention to what was occurring in her throne room, she was far more interested on the scene playing out on the big wall screen.

    On Fragatta the big auditorium was almost empty, Mary was watching an identical scene on the big screens that lined the room.

    Mary ¨C both of her ¨C refused to occupy her dungeon on Dobay, that world made her uncomfortable. The only time she had visited she had found herself fighting a visceral urge to send out a fleet of spaceships to find ice comets to humidify the planet. She was currently searching for someone to take over her Dobayan dungeon.

    The screens showed the dusty yellow ball of Dobay receding behind the Magellan. The focus then switched to the approaching blue planet.

    The Magellan diverted to avoid the point in space that both of the tide locked planets were orbiting around, on the assumption that it might be littered with space junk. The Magellan dropped a couple of repeater satellites as it prepared to swing round to view the farside of the blue planet. With the exception of a few small islands on the fringes, the nearside seemed to be all ocean.

    The Farside was radically different, two huge kidney shaped continents dominated. A narrow sea separated them, barely one hundred kilometres at its widest point, with innumerable volcanoes dominating its centre, and both coasts of the continents.

 Chapter 155

    * * * PARTHIA & FRAGATTA ¨C MARY & MARY * * *

    The Magellan maintained position over the west coast of the eastern continent. Its sensors were busy probing and recording. Down below everything indicated that the large number of active volcanoes had disrupted a large state.

    There were signs of war and raiding. The large fields that surrounded the large stone built cities were burnt. The cities looked the worse for wear, some seemed to have endured severe earthquakes, others were half buried by volcanic ash.

    The locals seemed enamoured of five sided stepped pyramids, and all the pyrmids had petagrams carved and gilded on their flat tops.

    The green skinned locals seemed fond of feathers when it came to personal adornment.

    Satisfied with this first pass, the Magellan proceeded west over the turbulent narrow ocean separating the two continents. The East coast of the western continent was just as filled with active volcanoes. The stone cities were also present, but these were deserted and showed signs of conflict. Numerous skeletons were visible patrolling the streets.

    Away from the coast there were vast grasslands that supported innumerable herds of large six limbed herbivores. The plains were surrounded by forests, and just by the number of tree stumps on the fringes of the forests it was obvious that someone wanted the grasslands to flourish and grow.

    Beyond the plains a visibly young range of hills lined the shore of the ocean. Mary ordered the Magellan to stop and maintain position over the ocean. Slowly the Magellan started descending towards a group of islands that were located about one hundred and fifty kilometres from the shore.

    Then Lewis Carroll broke in with: ? Mary, um, I have a problem in Portland. Looks like one of the riots is going to impact on one of the portal shops I¡¯m responsible for. ?

    * * * EARTH ¨C LEWIS CARROLL & MARY * * *

    Lewis Carroll had watched as a sneering, black clad Fred left the Portland shop. Lewis noted that Fred did at least lock the shop as he left. ¡®Stupid idiot,¡¯ he thought, ¡®that stupid mask won¡¯t keep anyone from recognising him considering that tattoo on his hand.¡¯

    Frustrated, Lewis called up the satellite feed again, he zoomed the view keeping the shop in the centre of the field of view. Smoke from a couple of fires was interfering with his view in one sector. ¡®They seem worked up today, this is worse than usual,¡¯ he thought to himself as he watched. Then, he noted two faintly glowing cyan coloured spots. ¡®Huh? What... Hey, one of those mana sources is the statue in front of my Portals shop...¡¯

    ? Mary, um, I have a problem in Portland. Looks like one of the riots is going to impact on one of the portal shops I¡¯m responsible for. ?

    On Fragatta, Mary tore her attention away from the big screens. She sighed and slipped back into her core off Maui. ? What¡¯s the problem, Lewis? I thought you had planned to seal our shops when the Darwinists came callin¡¯? ?The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ? The problem lies in the statue of John C. Fr¨¦mont that stands in the small square in front of our shop. ?

    ? What of it? ?

    ? You know, Mary. Conquest of California, US Senator, and first Republican nominee for President of the USA ¨C And ... um ... one of Bubba Harrison¡¯s ... ah ... masterpieces of enchanting. ?

    Mary managed to avoid laughing, not wishing to upset Lewis. ? You didn¡¯t supply any mana, did you? In that case what¡¯s the problem? ?

    ? People could get killed... ?

    ? Not our problem, Lewis. I didn¡¯t use that statue to create a golem, nor did you. Our mana signature isn¡¯t on it. Ol¡¯ Bubba did, an¡¯ he¡¯s not one of mine. An¡¯ how sure are you the mob is on its way? ?

    ? I had Mycroft reroute that satellite we ¨C ah ¨C inserted ¨C to replace the dud the Euros lofted a couple of months ago. It is currently maintaining position over Portland. There are two mobs on the way. The cops seem uninterested. ?

    This time Mary did laugh. ? Have any of the space agencies figured it out yet? K¡¯ sounds like we¡¯ll see some fun, pity you won¡¯t be able to harvest the results. What about our clerk? ?

    ? Fred has gone to join the rioters. When I offered to give him a safe way out, he was quite contemptuous. And no, the various agencies are still at loggerheads. The French are still trying to figure out how ¡®their¡¯ satellite can scoot around changing orbits like it does. ?

    ? Sack ¡¯im Lewis, we don¡¯t want that kind of hassle. ?

    ? Surely giving a warning, and possibly a fine should be enough of a penalty? ?

    ? Get rid of ¡¯im. He is workin¡¯ for a dungeon core, ¡¯an he has gone to join a mob bent on riotin¡¯ ¡¯an lootin¡¯ outside the dungeon. More to the point he defied you... ¡¯an me. ?

    Lewis sighed, ? Fine... I¡¯ll terminate him, but what about the shop and the statue? ?

    Mary grinned to herself, ? Tell you what, seal the shop as you planned, but open up one of the empty shops next door, and establish a portal to your friend... You know, the Mountains of Madness dungeon... the poor chap deserves a treat. ?

    Lewis fell silent for a while as he considered the possibilities. As a dungeon he really couldn¡¯t bring himself to disagree with making use of freely offered newby adventurers. Slowly he focused on the small strip mall, he selected one of the empty shops. He was happy to note that two other shops stood between it and the Portals shop. The creation of the bait didn¡¯t take him long.

    Once finished, Lewis watched the satellite feed. ¡®Hum, there are a lot of them, I¡¯m sure I can use some of them too... Now which of my dungeon entrances should I use?¡¯

    * * *

    Mary and Lewis had a long wait before the mob arrived, but once they did things deteriorated rapidly. Lewis¡¯s trap garnered instant attention, as it was the only shop that wasn¡¯t boarded up and sealed. The late arrivals concentrated their attention on the statue.

    They watched with curiosity as the vandals climbed the plinth and started spray painting the statue. Mary chuckled at the curses when the paint just wouldn¡¯t stick. Then someome threw a rope around it and pulled.

    The bronze statue staggered slightly, then before the stupefied eyes of its attackers it grabbed the rope and pulled it out of their surprised grasp. It shoved the individual who was clinging to it, as he tried to paint its face red.

    The bronze golem leapt down from its plinth landing on one unfortunate individual, then it swung its blunt bronze sword with its right hand whilst punching with its left.

    Mary watched as John C. Fr¨¦mont the golem left the square in pursuit of the terrified, and indignant mob.

    ? Well Lewis, that¡¯s that I guess. Give it a week or two then you might as well plan on relocatin¡¯ the shop Lewis. Or just givin¡¯ up on Portland. How were the pickin¡¯s? ?

    ? I am entertaining a rather large, if ill equipped raid on Parthia. The Mountains of Madness is playing host to some twenty-eight bewildered wanabe looters. Not much of a challenge really. ?

    ? Well fix up the shop you used to show the usual devastation an¡¯ close down the portals. ?