In the northern hemisphere of the p Darsal, Summer Solstice arrived. In most nations and cities, Zagaroth was the deity most celebrated, with Bedelia, the Phoenix and Queen of Fire, often being the seost revered on this day.

  In the southern hemisphere, the three-day Winter Solstice celebration was on its middle day, celebrating Amirume and Mericume, the goddesses of the Sun and Moon. Yu-Kiang, the Leviathan-Whale and King of the Os, was often aowledged on this day as well.

  But not all pces held the Primogeies first. Across the o there was a try that celebrated Xiyual before all others, for he was the hero and risen god who had fouheir nation after sing the nd of demons.

  Irionean Empire that covered much of the northern area of the ti of Dovrador, the church of Dormire had long been pushing a narrative that pced their god as an equal to the Empyreal Pilrs. The gap in power was in truth te to close during the lifespan of a single universe, but the narrative strengthehe religion, and it had begun to spread to other worlds as well.

  So across the world, people did celebrate in the manner most suited to their nature and s. In the Azeria Mountain Dungeon, Kazue, Mordecai, Moriko, and Li Zarb walked together to visit all the inhabitants and bosses. The three spouses were focused upon praising all of the dungeon’s denizens, and took great care to tell Li stories of all the aplishments and great battles of these true heroes.

  Li, in turn, was happy to tell many a tale of his own. Though the ratling god-shard had trouble keeping in mind that it was a day to talk about others, his instincts guided him enough that nearly half of the stories were about someone else.

  And a good third of those were about Mordecai. Mordecai retty certain Li wasn’t actually there for most of the stories Li told, but somehow these retellings had Li involved in some pivotal role. And even though they praised Mordecai, they also were often stories that included some embarrassing moments. Freshly ied avatars of younger dungeons were effectively the same maturity and experience as any normal young adult, giving Mordecai plenty of opportuo make mistakes and have ‘learning experiences’ across different avatars.

  Mordecai took them in stride and good humor. He aowledged his embarrassment over certain is, but all of it was too distant for him to be bothered by it anymore.

  Kazue and Moriko found having tales told about them by Li to be more disfiting. Li was less likely to be ied as a partit in these stories, but they were still a little weirded out by him just knowing things, even of those events were presented as “Oh, and I heard about that time that you […]”.

  It was a thing all the greater gods could do, for while not even Zagaroth could truly know everything at once, all of them were capable of knowing about almost anything that was not specifically shielded from their awareness.

  But even in this, Li ecial. Nothing could be shielded from his awareness. But that awareness often did not e with uanding, and was quite open to reinterpretation by the time it became a part of Li’s story. Like the time that the ratling told them in hushed tohat Zagaroth’s favorite food lums, but that it ecial secret. Mordecai was certain that this was some wild misuanding of something else, but he deliberately quashed his curiosity about it when he felt Ozuran’s attention turn directly on them when Li told them this ‘secret’. The feel of the Lord of Shadow’s presence was a very precisely trolled ral response, which rather strongly suggested to Mordecai that pursuing the topi any fashion would not be looked upon favorably.

  Ozuran’s attention withdrew as quickly as it had e. There were disadva times to being a high priest. You had more of yod’s favor, but it also came with more attention, and one did not always want a god’s attention.

  In addition to their own tour of the dungeon, the inhabitants were celebrating in their own ways, whether showing off for each other, peting in challenges and games, or extolling the virtues and strengths of their fellows.

  It was to also be the st night that Mordecai was going to get to spend in the physical presence of his wives for a while. But he was certain that it was the best for their personal growth right now. Kazue most especially o gain skills and experience beyond what he taught her.

  He was also slightly worried that having an aspect of herself separated from their e would cause her to drift away from them, and that distand viewpoint would be ied bato her core when she visited. He thought it very unlikely, but if it was going to happen, he’d rather find out soohan ter.

  Mordecai also didn’t know how an iiohere was signifit dissoween core and avatar would turn out, as the avatar would also be influenced by the core’s experiences. While some of his avatars had signifit personality differences, especially when pared to each other, they were all remixes of his base personality. That should hold true for Kazue as well, but her circumstances were different and there otential cause for her to develop different opinions and feelings.

  But that worry he kept tucked far away in the back of his mind. For now, he would simply be as supportive as he could, and the biggest material support he could give them was to stock the expanded backpack Moriko would be carrying as best he could. The two of them would be walking out with every and easily traded small valuables the dungeon had acquired from delvers, along with every potion and sordecai had the time to make from the raw materials that had been traded in. Including a particurly precious opal as an emergency fund.

  Far to the west, Bellona was having a very different celebration. While some aspects were the same, the vilge was focused arouhe tales they told her of each other’s aplishments were apanied by the spiritual pressure of the starring element iory, and every drink and bite of food she was being served was filled with elemental energy, often acquired from the elemental pnes directly. She retty certain that this flood of flig spiritual energy would have killed her before her training had begun, but even in this celebratioraining tinued.

  Her will and mastery of the elements was tried and challenged over and ain, testing the spiritual pressure of these mortal desdants of jinn and other elemental beings one by one, needing to match their exact mixture of elemental heritage every time.

  Their power was sinking into her soul slowly, gradually altering her. By the time her training was finished, Bellona would be reized as having elemental bloodlines by anyone who could sense such things, and it would even be reflected in any children she might have iure. It might not awaken in any given desdant, but the potential would be there.

  The extent of the powers this would awaken was not known even by the people trainihe only limitation of potential was that she would not gain any powers ic that only full genie or elemental creatures had. Any power or teique that could awaken among the people of the vilge might awaken within her.

  Bellona got to fight as well and enjoyed some wrestling and boxing matches to show her skill and physical strength. She had worked to keep in shape when most of her time had beeed to cultivating spiritual power, and she was gd to let loose this side of herself for the first time in a while. This was very much a part of herself, the raw physicality of her sculpted orc physique honed by endless hours of training and practiaster her ons and armor.

  She pushed herself until the sun rose the m, said her daily prayers to Amirume, goddess of the sun, and finally colpsed into bed. This was the one day she was going to get to sleep in, as everyone else was exhausted as well.

  Fuyuko had no oo celebrate with, however. Her travels were not illegal, but a girl traveling by herself otential target, and it was a flip if one could trust any given soldier to be professional. And even those might be suspicious of a loraveler heading toward the border.

  Crossing the border wasn’t illegal either, but again her circumstances made it suspicious. She had no money and no es, no reason to give for why she traveled. So she had been traveling uhe cover of darkness, taking full advantage of the fine equipment that she had been gifted.

  For this day however, she found a pce to shelter before midnight instead of pushing for dawn, and she settled in to meditate on all that had happened over the past several weeks. She rahoughts over what she had mao do, and how her skills had improved with bow and bde.

  Which was not nearly as much as she’d like. If she wasn’t too far away from a still target, she could usually hit what she was aiming at, and she was strong enough to pull the bow bapletely, but she’d hate to try hitting a moving target with it.

  She was better with her daggers, evehrowing them. She usually traveled with one in hand, and used them for hunting any small game or birds she came across. She couldly haul around a deer carcass anyway, so the only time she’d hunted for one had been when she found ay hunter’s shack with a smoking building. Fuyuko assumed it was visited regurly as it retty , so she left the smoked meat that she couldn’t carry hanging up in the shack.

  Not that she’d done a great job at dressing the carcass or butchering the meat. She khe basics of cooking and preservi, and had a bit of training for dressing caught animals from the family farmer who had taken her in for a couple of weeks, but she was still very muew to all of this.

  But Fuyuko had also grown stronger and more fident during her loravels. She’d proven that she could do it, that she could survive off the nd. She wasn’t sure yet that she would call it thriving, but she was doing fine.

  When she’d finished doing her best to appraise her own improvements and made sure to gratute herself for every aplishment she’d actually achieved, she felt she’d done all she could right now to fulfill the purpose of this holiday. So her mind turo the future.

  She was not looking to cross directly into Kuic. There were too many flig emotions and thoughts there. She was leaving the ce, however slim, of joining a of her own people in order to … what? She didn’t know. There was some sort of opportunity there, but someone also wanted something of her.

  Instead, she would make her way into the Elven kingdom of Danuana. Crossing the river by using a bridge there seemed much easier than trying to cross directly into Kuic anyway. Not that the idea of traipsing around elven forests didn’t make her nervous, it just made her less nervous than whatever unknown waited for her in Kuic.

  It would also be a ce to learn something more about her possible destination. Of course, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do if she decided things were too fishy and bailed out of the idea of going to this dungeon. Apprentice herself out to a hury to bee a merary? Would either of those be better than what would happen if she had joined a gang? She didn’t know.

  When Fuyuko had chewed on all the thoughts she could, she simply slept the rest of the daylight away, and broke camp o was dark once more.

  The day found the Azeria dungeon saying farewell to Kazue and Moriko. There were mixed feelings all around, but Kazue did uand Mordecai’s point about experieng the world and she was excited to go see Moriko’s home and the capital and so many more pces beyond. Not only was she not bound by any duty or obligation to stay, but she had a sort of duty and obligation to herself to go and explore the world. It was still scary though, even with Moriko at her side.

  They both gave Mordeore kiss goodbye, then stepped across the border of the duo begin their adveogether.

  Zagaroth