“So, for my first modification, we’re going to alter the sensitivity of the traps.” Mordecai began, then demonstrated to Kazue, showing how to focus on the idea of a certain amount of weight, rather than the cept of just an enemy crossing a pressure pte. “That was my first mistake. Your mother could have still tripped them by creating rger minions, but she’d have had to spend more energy and would have been able to summon fewer at a time. This brings us to my mistake, which is having them all turned on at the same time.”

  “Hmm, how do you fix that without directly interfering?” Kazue asked, then thought for a moment. “Well, you were able to give Zushi and Ryuhoho some trol over their room’s traps, but by activating them directly. That doesn’t seem like it would work here.”

  “Correct. But it’s fairly simple still, we create a rule. In this case, I am thinking that the rule is that the trap does not bee active until a boss has passed within 10 feet of the trap. Well, of the trap’s target area, I am going to shift some of the traps and give them a different trigger.” Mordecai replied. Adding the rule wasn’t hard, it was a simple dition and cept.

  “Now, I mentioraps up above as well. It’ll take up some of the same capacity, so we’ll have fewer floor traps, but what I want to do is create simple automatons that look like stactites, with a mix of heat and motion sensors. We give them different loads. Some simply let out an explosion, others might release a toxin, and others be tinuous smoke makers. Umbrowl should appreciate those. Which reminds me, part of disguising them is of course to create lots of loactites in the ceiling.”

  Mordecai showed Kazue how to make the artificial ‘eyes’, the her practice creating them. “There are living creatures that take this role, and t as traps instead of inhabitants for a dungeon, but the dungeon adapts to the will of the core. I suspect that your habits will lead to having all of our inhabitants be fully sapient, and I ’t imagine a sapient trapped in such a body being anything but bored.”

  Kazue wrinkled her the idea. “Yeah, that sounds like it’d be mean. Mm, you mentiohat possibility before, when I first made some of the rabbits intanthros. So memo to me! No living creatures for traps, uhey be a lot more. Though I don’t think I’d have thought of making living traps, still good to know. So, better traps below, raps above, anything else?”

  “Not for traps, but I do have something else for the room. We’ll keep our currerances for backup where they are, but make sure they are sealed except for when being used. I want to take advantage of our numbers and some architecture. We create a work of tunnels and create slits that sharpshooters and mages alike attack from safely, while making it very hard for them to be attacked. Only to be used judiciously, it’s too deadly a tactic to use for many groups, but it would have been useful against your mother’s party. With the right designs, turns, and breaks, even a powerful party will have to waste resources to get at the sources of the attacks. Individually they might not be a threat, but in hey be, especially with some alchemical help.” And with that, he demonstrated, a work of tunnels behind the wall that ran in isoted ses so that a single release of a toxic gas or a fireball behind the fortifications couldn’t travel far.

  “And then a bag of mixed materials to make it not too easy to undo just by shiftih.” Kazue finished for him with a grin, then turned her attention to pleting the work with him. It only took a little while before they were done. “Anything else you were thinking of love?”

  “Mmm, no, I think that’s about it for today.” There was not a lot of energy left over to begin the fifth floor, so they would o be tent with their upgrades for now. At least the floors shouldn’t need any revamping again.

  “Excellent! Cause I got something to talk with you about.” The little fox girl gave him an impish grin, then disappeared off to their private chambers. What was that about?

  While Kazue waited for her husband to follow her, she sent Moriko a little message privately. “You might want to slow down, I think yoing to find this distrag.” She could feel Moriko’s curiosity, and Kazue swished her tails with anticipation.

  Mordecai appeared a few steps away, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. “What are you up to Love?”

  “Hehe, well, I realized something a little earlier.” She bit her lip briefly before tinuing. “It seems that my dear husband overlooked something when it es to his own abilities. Ah, such disappoi, here I thought that I had married a perfeow-it-all.” As Kazue dramatically pced the back of her hand against her forehead, she tio keep Moriko up to date on what she was doing.

  Said husband rolled his eyes even as a hint of a smile made his lips twitch. “It’s kind of a lot to keep track of, I admit. So out with it.”

  “Well,” Kazue said as she dropped the pose and began stalking around him slowly, swaying slightly with each step to increase the swish of her tails. “Maybe it’s because you aren’t really a kitsuhat this happened. You did base your shape-ging on kitsune shape-shifting, right?”

  “Yes…” He replied slowly as he turned his head to watch her, crossing his arms as he tried to figure out where she was going.

  “Uhuh. And we do have quite a reputation for being shape-shifting tricksters. But I do think my dearest husband was far too focused on the skills that let us mix and match parts of our forms. I think he fot about why some master shape gers are called Thousand Face kitsune. And you did say you had been a kitsune several times, did you not? Surely you mastered that path at least once? And I am certain that this is the sort of thing that would make Moriko very happy.”

  Mordecai’s expression as he figured out where she was going erfect, and she did her best to send that image to Moriko as she tinued, her tone dripping with honey-sweet innoce. “And, well, you’ve been pushio master my shape-ging, and when I get to the point that I take on any form, I will surely need someoo show me exactly how being a boy works.” She paused in front of him and fluttered her shes. “Surely you show me how it works, and help me get some experiehough I am not sure how pretty a girl you’d make without a little more work, your jaw is a bit square, but it’ll be iing to find out!”

  Mordecai’s bemused expression made Kazue finally break down with ughter as Moriko practically cackled over their bond, and he just slowly shook his head. “Okay, fair enough, I did fet about that. So yes, while I didn’t previously create any alternative forms for, ah, ‘eai’ purposes, that level of shape-ging should indeed satiate Moriko’s curiosity.” He was sending over the bond at the same time too, but now shifted his tone as he smirked a little. “Of course, if you o be taught that way, I could also just demonstrate with our wife, and the you try it out. I’m sure she’d be willing to help you learn anything you like.”

  The surprised but rather happy emotional surge along the bond suggested that yes, Moriko would very mujoy helping ‘teach’ Kazue if it came to that. Mordecai had very mudersold what his shape-ging could do when Moriko had asked earlier, he had even undersold it to himself.

  After that bit of distra was over, Moriko resumed her run, dropping bato her meditative trance. She was not yet capable of maintaining this sort of hours-long run at speed without actively maintaining her flow of chi, though legend and rumor state that the true masters could maintain even bat for hours while versing with their oppo. She inteo eventually find out for herself.

  On through the rest of the night she ran, into the chill of the dark night. She could maintain a speed just slightly faster than most horses could run for short distances, without the health issues of running the poor creature into the ground. Travel that would take most travelers several days took her just ohough without the ce to truly rest. She had passed by more tharaveling group on her way, but had done no more than wave. One could tell how experienced a traveler a person was by how surprised, or rather not surprised, they were at being passed by a runner.

  It was in the dark of the pre-dawn chill that she saw the first lights of Ekuince upon its walls and the castle spires. A much rger city than Riverbridge, the capital was still some distance away, so she did not slow down her speed yet. When she was close enough for all trees to have been cleared away for the sake of visibility, Moriko finally altered her course. The four kitsuies had their monasteries outside of the city proper, and she was now aiming to the east of the city walls for the pound beholden to the Lady of Passions.

  The monk only slowed her pace when she finally approached the outer walls of the pound. The monasteries were more used to fast-paced travelers, but only a fool or someone desperate risked approag so quickly that they could not be reized.

  The monks on guard duty rexed when they did reize her, and one of them hailed her. “Moriko! I heard you were going to be gone for quite a while yet. What brings you back?”

  “I seek advice from my Master, though not sently he o be notified immediately. If you two could just pass on the word when you get off shift? I’m going to head to the baths the some food, I’ll be avaible at his leisure.”

  “Not a problem.” he replied, then smiled at her. “How long will you be staying?”

  Moriko heard the other question he was asking, and fshed him a grin. “Only a couple of days, I o get bay husband and wife after all.” The look on their faces riceless. “And I’ve found that I am quite itted to them. It’s been an iing journey.” That should preempt any other specution, especially as word spread. She had been here for 20 years, aees of the Lady of Passions teo be more open about their desires, so she knew many of the other monks quite well. Not everyone’s passions ran that way of course, and some came here specifically because their other passions would be respected, so she expected her decision to be respected, but that did not mean they wouldn’t be surprised at the sudden shift. Moriko had always been a little more enthusiastic about expl this path than even most of her fellow monks, and now she was going to enjoy the small stir her sudden ge in status was going to cause.

  There was still a small pang of disappoi, an awareness of options no longer avaible. Moriko had her standards of course, but all else being equal she had found early on that she disliked having ay bed. Still, it was a smaller rea than she’d quite expected, she was adjusting faster thahought she might. There was a different sort of warmth in knowing that her spouses were waiting for her, and in being happy to make them happy.

  After a few moments of fending off questions that she was not going to answer in full yet, she said her farewells to them and headed ihe path she took was not straight to the baths or her room just yet though, Moriko had a quick stop to make first. Keepiep as light as possible, she made her ast the gardens and into the small grove kept tended ihe walls, seeking out a clearing where she found a graying felinoid woman iation. “Hey Chaxiss, I ask you for a favor?”

  The soft-furred woman barely cracked open ao gnce her way. “You’ve grown some, you are not as noisy as you were before your trip, but I still heard you before you reached the trees. I admit, however, to being curious as to what a rash young girl like yourself wants with an old dy like me.”

  Zagaroth