With both of his wives fully occupied, Mordecai found himself with little to do but think for a while. He was lying in their bed and staring up at the ceiling as his thoughts wandered, and he allowed himself this rare opportunity to wallow in his worries. His first was this purity cult. If they still knew his name and put the information together to realize that he truly was the same Mordecai, they could be thhly screwed if they wanted revenge and/or ‘justice’. Hypothetically he should be pushing for them to grow as fast as possible, but by his estimations it ointless.

  The world had ged in many ways, but it also appeared to be much the same in more ways than it had ged. There were many paths to power, but there were limits to how much power most individuals could gather. When people reached the pinnacle of their power many took leadership or training positions or retired in some form. But they were often still there, still avaible for many years. If this lot was as fanatical as the ones he had faced, there were an unknown number of powerhouses they could put out the call to. A rge team as strong as the likes of Aia or Traxalim could readily clear a twenty-floor dungeon if they did it right, and might be able to clear up to a normal thirty-floor dungeon. With enough resources and effort, no dungeon shy of about fifty floors could be truly sidered unassaible.

  Which art of why he was more than happy to be f these local alliances. Yes, his desdants that were in the know were w towards that goal too, but it took far moodwill than just them to create a real alliance. So descriptions like effit, well trolled, challenging but not truly dangerous, and friendly were all words he wao promote in their design. Which segued into his other major .

  Souls like Kazue’s could be incredibly strong and resilient when given time to grow, but they could also be brittle before they reached their potential. And he believed Kazue was still ientially brittle stage. So he wao protect her heart while she grew iional strength, which was why he was hiding something that he was doing from her, and by extension Moriko.

  His gaze up at the ceiling shifted to examihe vast work of energy that made up the body of their dungeon, its intricate web tying to their cores. Most of it tied to the ter of their shared core, but a few things were tered on one side or the other. They each had a web representing their affinities, his fons and hers for ess, making it more effit to create creatures of those types. He had been able to willfully shape the wo webs ected to his core, enabling him to el a limited amount of magic through any of their inhabitants. The correspondiworks attached to Kazue had been shaped by him nudgihoughts and as, first making their split path options more effit than most dungeons just simply building out that mu a floor, and sed enabling the shortcuts Moriko and their inhabitants could use to move around the dungeon quickly.

  There was another one he wao develop for her, that was only avaible for her, and even that was a maybe. He’d only known one duhat had developed this trait, and Mordecai retty certain that Kazue qualified for it, but if she k ossible then the feedback of striving too hard for it might cel it out. Mordecai knew he wasn’t qualified to develop it because he wouldn’t have grieved to kill those bandits, but even with the threat they represented Kazue would have. So he was trying to guide her carefully, and wheime came he prayed that it would be enough.

  A sensation of panioriko snapped Mordecai out of his thoughts, and he felt Kazue’s attention shifting towards their wife at the same time as his did. It took only a moment to get a gist of the situation, and relief flowed through them followed by a temptation to ugh. “Go on, take care of uests. I’ll provide any support I to Moriko.” He sent across their link, then turned all of his focus to where Moriko was trying to cope with the royal ambush.

  Moriko’s edge of panic faded as soon as she felt the mental touch of her husband and wife, and strangely enough, it was their amusement that helped the most. There really wasn’t a reason to be this on edge, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t feel fortable in more formal, courtly sort of situations. That art of the reason she’d been more than happy to let Mordecai and Kazue py king and queen of the dungeon when needed, Moriko wanted no part of it.

  And it’s not like she wasn’t used to hierarchical anizations, deing the invite by the princess would have been roughly the same as deing an invitation from a high master of one of the other monasteries, but the rules for monks were so much simpler and straightforward. She didn’t have to try and interpret more than two yers of unicatioween what was said and what was explicitly not said. Everything she knew of more courtly matters suggested there were a lot more yers, and she didn’t even know the nguages they were in. But maybe she was just overthinking things.

  Her spinning thoughts certainly slowed down her reas, and she barely got a small bow out to Lady Yuriko in respoo the dy’s curtsy before she turo face the oning princesses. Moriko would have tried to curtsy if she’d been in a dress, but she wasn’t sure if she should when she didn’t have any sort of skirt.

  The open door revealed several guardsmen waiting outside as the four womeered, with the one holding the door open for them closing it behind them. Lady Yuriko walked around to staween but off to the side of Moriko and the group of smiling dies. “Lady Moriko, I would like to introduce to you their royal highhis is first-born Princess Kagami.” The kitsuured towards an almost ephemeral-looking tall woman with pale hair and skin with striking light green eyes.

  “Third born princess Kitiara,” This time she was gesturing towards the shorter but slightly stockier woman with blond hair and ice-blue eyes. The gap iween would be the heir, Prince Ailwin, Moriko kept track of that much at least. She was also certain that Yuriko was helping her out by naming them with their birth order. She felt a nudge of curiosity from Mordecai about the sed born being heir, and she thought about it briefly. She khat their monarchy atriarchy and that it had something to do with the Azeria being a matriarchy, but she didn’t know the details.

  “Fourth born Priiriana,” Yuriko tihis princess was the most familiar looking in c, with dark hair and eyes aures that could have fit in with any of the mixed human and elven blood families in Riverbridge.

  “And sixth-born Princess Bridgette.” The final young woman had fiery red hair that grew in a wild, almost feathery style, and dark, brilliant greehis gap should be Princess Orchid, Moriko retty certain that the you was a boy. Plus Bridgette looked to be close to Kazue’s age.

  “Yraces, this is Lady Moriko, te of Riverbridge and now of, well, that’s part of what dinner will be to discuss.” Yuriko turo look at Moriko. “Your spouses have a cim on an uninhabited se of nd along our southern border, teically just outside of our borders in a se of the mountains not cimed by any nation, a matter of treaties as there are many indeperibes who live there. So you may want to ask them to sider an official name for their territory. But that all be discussed in two days.”

  Moriko bowed again to the assembled group, and finally mao get some words out, her first since Yuriko had startled her. “It is a pleasure to meet you, yhnesses.” She winced slightly as her tongue slid over the doubled ‘s’ sound. Mordecai’s amusement filled the back of her head, and she could feel him suggest that this was why Lady Yuriko had not once used the plural form of princess, and only once used hignesses. Moriko could also feel his curiosity at the strongly varied appearances of the four, and she reminded him that the nobility of Kuic had a lot of mixed lineages, including many that were not human, or entirely mortal. That st thought was triggered by notig that Bridgette’s hair was closer to fme-like than Moriko had realized before, the tips looking almost like actual fire.

  “The pleasure is ours.” Princess Kagami said in a rich, slightly amused voice. “I do apologize for ambushing you like this, but dress and shoes alone do not plete an outfit I am afraid. The dinner will be private, in that the only non-family to be there will be those serving the dinner, but you will still o make a bit of arance as it is an official dinner invitation. So, while Mistress U is brilliant and I am not sure she charges us enough, we have decided to help you plete your outfit. Accessories are a must.” Now her smile turned wicked and spiratorial. “We don’t he guards for prote you know. We’re all quite capable, and we have our favorite Auntie here too, but someone will o carry everything.”

  Moriko’s pns for the day were slipping ever further away, and she did wish that her dear husband would stop snickering at her. Well, at least she actually liked shopping for pretty clothes. “Thank you for yenerosity.” She wasn’t sure how much she meant the formality, that irrational part of her just wao run away from the whole thing. But that was stupid. No, the princesses were showing her kindness, she should be grateful. Moriko took a deep breath, then tinued. “I apologize if I am a bit awkward. I am not used to the formalities of court.” She gave them the best smile she could at the moment. “I pce myself in your hands.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that!” Bridgette, the you, said as she bounded forward and took Moriko’s hands in hers. “I mean, you have to worry about it a little when we are in public, but we are in private right now. Well, sort of.” She gestured her head toward the store’s front windows. “But the guards are making sure that no gawkers are hanging about at least.” She gri Moriko. “Really, we are here to make friends. Most people won’t know what to make of you and yours, so we want to help make a good impression. And Orchid’s letter said she thought well of you three, though I think she didn’t tell us everything.” Those dark green eyes sparked with mischief. “I hope you’ll be able to fill in what she is not telling us.”

  Moriko’s thoughts jumped to a particur moment, and her lips quirked as she felt Mordecai’s thoughts reach the same point. She gnced around and leaned in, which drew the other women in close automatically as they felt the tug of a potential secret being told. “Well,” Moriko said in a quiet voice, “She’s probably a bit embarrassed ah elemental snuck up on her and punched her in the back of the head.” There were suitable sounds of surprise from them, but no looks of deep shock. They knew and uood that Orchid got into physical danger. Kitiara seemed particurly ptive as she briefly drummed her fingers on the hilt of the sword by her side.

  It felt almost like her vision was clearing, and Moriko looked at the princesses again. All of them were iiful dresses of course, but much like the designs she’d just been pig out none of them were truly restrig.

  Kagami wasn’t just ethereal and graceful, she gave the distinct impression that she’d practically float out of the way of an attack.

  Kitiara had a more solid presend cooler demeanor, and givehick-bded sword by her side, Moriko suspected she was the sort of swordsman who met physical attacks head-on.

  Tiriana had a pair of lighter, slender bdes at her sides. Given the designs of the hilts and the way they matched, it seemed likely that she was trained in one of the elven styles focused on dual-wielding swords.

  And Bridgette, well, her hands felt unusually warm, and with the way her hair looked to almost flicker, Moriko would be surprised if the you princess wasn’t some sort of mage.

  bined with how quickly the clothier had jumped t cealed ons into Moriko’s dress, she was getting a different impression of the royal family than she had before. Also, she was w just how much deadly metal was cealed ihose yers of cloth.

  Zagaroth