Bellona’s training roceeding well, and her soul was slowly taking on stronger elemental attributes. Learning to be in harmony with the elements so that they would not readily harm her had been the first step. The step was to incorporate them into her very self.

  The earth beh her feet was always steady, her footing sure, and she could feel the tremors of any step near her. It even respoo her needs by fortifying her shield or shattering the ground near her.

  The air embraced her, allowio leap further and higher and cushioning her should she fall; it even cycled in her lungs if she held her breath, allowio not breathe for up to an hour.

  Not that she’d o do so uer. One of the caves held a small undergrouhat was surprisingly ice-cold given the nearby hot springs, and there she had learo glide through the water like she was born to it, inured against the chill. Disc that she could breathe uer as well had been a ret act, for she’d initially been practig while holding her breath, only to find that she’d been uer far lohan she had meant to be, and was in fact breathing the water without realizing it! That had created a brief moment of panic, but her undine-blooded trainer just looked amused at her expense.

  Fire responded readily, called easily to her hand as either a ball to be thrown or as a spike of magma to be wielded as a on. She preferred her axe, but options were nice, and when she cshed with a on-wielding foe she could potentially disarm them by heating their on and making them drop it, which was a fun trick. It didn’t work as well against people who weren’t harmed by fire though.

  The most amazing part of it to her was that it didn’t feel like she was learning how to do these things so much as disc she’d had the potential to do them all along. Bellona retty certain that it wasn’t true, and that it was being Marked that was making this possible at all, but it still felt like she was simply awakening something that had been asleep in her soul all along.

  Overall, she loved it. Every bit of fatigue, every pint from her muscles, every mark and scar left on her skin, it was exhirating, for every single one of these was a sign of her progress. Admittedly, a bit more sleep would be nice, but at least they fed her well. And suteresting food as well.

  Once she’d started to incorporate the elements into her soul, the variety of food had increased. Earth-aligned acids and alkalines could be used more strongly than they could for most, and there were ingredients that could literally set a person’s blood on fire if it didn’t already have a bit of fire in it, and so many others. Snow mead was fun too, it came with a trace of elemental energy that would try to freeze you from the inside.

  The food was teically part of her training too, ensuring that her body and soul were inundated with elemental energy at all times, but it was a fun and delicious part of training!

  Now it was time to begin the phase. While the location of the caldera guaranteed a certain amount of elemental flux, this location was unusual because of a particur cavern system that spilled elemental energy out, and at the ter of the system was aal nexus.

  Bellona’s training goal was simply to reach the caverhe nexus sat, without external aid. This goal was plicated by the fact that there was not even a mapped-out route, the stant ade the tunnels shift and ge almost like a living thing. In addition to which, elemental creatures frequently spawned in there, ravenous for energy and unwitting of existences beyond their own needs. They weren’t evil, simply mindless and violent and quite possibly existing in agony.

  There was going to be a diverse team shadowing her for safety, as even the most experienced of them never go into the caves in a group of less than five. Most of the time it’s not needed, but you never know when it will be needed. But if the team had to step in, this run was a failure and she’d be required to wait and practice at least another week before trying again.

  But she also had a personal goal. While her feelings about being assigo this dungeon were mixed, she’d liked what she’d seen of Moriko at least, and Bellona had her own pride. She wanted something to show off her skill and power. She inteo collect elementally infused crystals from the tral cavern, hopefully in a wide variety. And there should be a lot of crystals.

  The prevalence of crystals had helped form a theory that the massive amount of energy present was causing a dungeon core to keep attempting to spontaneously form, but the stant chaos was breaking them in various ways, whether physically shattering them or aligning them toly with a single elemental to fun the way they were supposed to, or otherwise preventing them from f properly.

  This meant that the tral cave was littered with random crystals, and there were random outcroppings throughout the system. But Bellona wanted only the best, so she was going to only collect the powerfully charged ones in the ter.

  While Bellona was pleting her preparations to explore the cavern system, Kazue’s avatar was suffering from giggle fits as Moriko gave her the day’s news from the dungeon. “He did that to Princess Orchid? Oh, what an awful man. I just wish I could have seen her face when Mordecai volunteered her to eain Li.” She was curled up on their bed in the room they were renting at the inn, uo even stand as she ughed. “I adore her, but she’s also alerfectly posed, it would have beeo see her rea. Oh, what did Paltira do? He’s always by her side, but that didn’t sound like he was invited.”

  Moriko grinned. “You’re right. Instead, Mordecai set them a drinking challenge, with a prize for each person who could finish a bottle while still scious. Gave a bottle to Kansif too. Remember her? She’s the one I met along with Bellona in Ekuince. She was also Orchid’s bodyguard before she joihe .”

  Kazue frowned briefly. “Just a bottle? What – oh!” Her eyes widened. “He gave them that. Yeah, I could see that being worth a prize. He’s got bunkin healers with them just in case, right?”

  Moriko snorted. “We aren’t all lightweights like you Love. But your other self made sure to keep a close eye on them just in case. Amazingly enough, they all mao finish their bottles, but apparently this was enough to heat up Xarlug’s fiend-tainted blood enough to create literal steam seeping out of his skin. Paltira and Kansif are just unfair though. Her Mark training was with shifters, but he was trained by an actual dragon!”

  “Oh, that’s awesome! What is he going to give them as prizes?”

  Moriked. “He’s thinking about it. Mordecai wasn’t certain how much they will remember in the m, so he decided to wait until they were sober anyway. Oh, and it seems they are kind of making a mess of the bat route. They got stu the fourth floor though, none of them keep their dires straight so they are wandering in circles.”

  “Oh, I am gd they didn’t try my path. Though maybe the faeries would have fun trying to help three drunk people.” Kazue rolled onto her back to stare up at the ceiling. “So, in a couple of days, the captain and his friends are going to be at the dungeon. Should we be worried?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Even before Orchid’s group arrived, I think they’d have been fihe allies he and your mother mao summon with our help are no joke. And the dungeon’s inhabitants are all stronger now than before the attack as well.”

  “Mmm, I guess.” Kazue sighed. “I think I am nervous about our own trip. And somehow the idea of actually seeing the ’s vilge again is kind of scary. A lot of people have visited me, but there’s a lot of other people there too, you know?”

  Moriko sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand. “Of course it’s scary,” she said softly, “You lived there, but you also died there.”

  Kazue shuddered and closed her eyes. “I don’t really like remembering that part. I usually think of it more like I was transformed.” She knew better, but it just made it easier most of the time. “I guess I probably o deal with that properly or something,” she took a deep breath, “Don’t let me back out on this. I think I o visit the moon pool at night … and then my grave. Where my inal body is buried.” The thought made her sick to her stomad she squeezed Moriko’s hand tightly.

  Moriko’s kisses upon her eyes and lips were soothing and tender. “Don’t worry Kazue, I will support you through this. Oh, and Mordecai says that he’d like to help but that if you o do it, then you shouldn’t wait until he be there too.” She chuckled softly, “Your core sounds like she enjoys the idea about as much as you do.”

  “Well, we’re the same person after all,” Kazue mumbled, opening her eyes, “even if I’m split in twht now. Mmm, I felt that rea though. She probably felt mioo.” It had been faint, just a sense of disturband distress that faded after a moment, but Kazue could see how that faint sense would be enough to let an avatar know when to run bae if they could.

  “You know,” Moriko mused, “it’s too bad that you and Mordecai ’t make an internal and an ied avatar at the same time. Having two of each of you to py with at the same time could be fun.”

  Kazue narrowed her eyes and smirked. “You jest, but Mordecai has said it’s possible, it just will take a while. So you’d better master eternal youth to be able to enjoy it properly.” And Kazue’s own ‘joke’ there was in ear. She’d felt her owh ahe weight of the life span discrepancy between her mother and father.

  “And more than that,” Kazue licked her lips nervously, preparing to state pinly something she’d only teased or joked about before, “A big family has always been part of my dreams. I don’t io retire this avatar until I have had at least one child with Mordecai. I am hoping you will want the same, and after that… I think I’m a touch more willing to really py with certain shape-shifting potential, and see if I do it well enough to get ynant too.” There, she’d said it. And that wasn’t the end of what some of her dreams had grown to include, but shape-ging wasn’t something Moriko could indulge in the same way.

  The half-elf’s mouth dropped open slightly in surprise, then slowly closed as she looked thoughtful. “I’ve never seriously sidered having my own kids. We’ve talked about it as a vague idea, but to be asked like this, I, well,” She took a breath, “Yes. When we are stable and safe enough that you are ready to have our husband’s child, I am willing to bee a mother as well,” She smiled tenderly at Kazue, “And after that, I am willing to help you experiment. Though maybe not until the first couple of kids are older. As for two avatars of each of you, well, that sounds like a potential indulgence even I haven’t experienced yet.” Moriko’s eyes were dark and hungry as her lips cimed Kazue’s, and the two of them did not leave the bed for quite a while after that.

  Zagaroth