Bellona’s arrival had certainly made Mordecai’s day more iing. He’d noticed her well before her group had reached the trading post vilge, and it hadn’t been hard to guess who she was, but he’d let everything run on its own until she was ‘officially’ ihe dungeon. Unless she did actually bee a tractor, there were a few secrets they inteo keep for now.

  That business with the wolf monster had been unfortunate. Clever and insane is a nasty bination, especially with a species as aggressive as that one was. He was just gd that he’d only had to kill it o had held so much violent, hostile i hidden away in its heart that he’d been able to cel the Mercy boon before he fed it the poison. That boon could only be removed by sensus between Kazue and himself, and they had to spend time removing it per individual, and it still required that the individual had the proper level of hostility.

  The versatioween Bellona and the others had been iing, and Princess Orchid’s as also had some responses invisible to the rest of the people in the room. “Did, did she just hit on you? And me? Did she really mean that?” Kazue sounded almost panicked, and it drew Moriko’s fused attention as Mordecai responded.

  “Yes and no, Love. Orchid did not mean it seriously, in that she does not expey of us to a it. She utting on a dispy to make a point. However, she did mean it seriously in the sehat if she thought it would get the information she wants and thought it was worth it, she would be willing to seduy or all of us. It’s clear that she’s worked out something with Paltira to ease the impact of such work on their retionship, and it seems that she’s mostly removed herself from being a seductress and spy as a on role, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t act with all siy if she thought it was the best option. And I imagihat her shape-shifting abilities e in handy to py different roles.”

  Moriko’s response was incredulous, “Princes Orchid just flirted with the two of you? What the hell is going ohere?”

  “She was making a point to Bellona about duty and roles, and a particur sort of trust. Speaking of which, I think I o step in here.” Out loud he said, “I think we avoid any flicts of i. To start with cepts you are more familiar with, do you not owe different duties to the Church, to Amirume, and to Kuic?” While his attention was on the room, he could hear Kazue expining the situation in more detail to Moriko.

  Bellona looked thoughtful as she answered slowly. “Teically, maybe, but I don’t see how they could e into flict.”

  Mordecai smiled slightly, “I think you have had it easy if that is not a . Do you not think that two champions of Amirume have never found themselves on opposite sides of a battle, each owiy to their own kingdom in the midst of war? No matter who survives the battle, Amirume loses a champion. But she is the goddess of civilization, and for a civilization to survive it must be able to depend on the loyalty of its warriors and soldiers. To not fight to their utmost for their kingdom would also be a betrayal of their goddess, barring other situations that would require them to quit the battlefield. Simirly, if a superior in your church asked you to do something that you believed was against Amirume’s teag, would you not be obligated by your faith to refuse? And depending on the circumstance, might you not be obligated to report them to the Kuic gover?”

  The oran rubbed at her temple, “I suppose. That seems unlikely, but at a stretch, possible.”

  He nodded before tinuing, “Exactly. While a flict between Kuic and Azeria Mountain Dungeon is possible, it is unlikely. But we defihat tingency as well, assuming that we all decide to go ahead with f a tract. You have been assigned here as an Envoy, and to represent Kuic’s is in helping defend its ally. reement would simply have the dition that so long as you are assigned as our envoy, you will operate as ent and tractor while maintaining your other duties as envoy. Should your positiohdrawn because of a flict that obligated you to no longer work for us, you would also be obliged to leave our territory before you would be relieved of your duties as a tractor to the dungeon, and of course, we ot obstruct such a departure,” He looked over at Orchid, “In your position as a Princess, do you agree that this is reasonable?”

  Orchid sat up at the question and took a moment to pose herself into the proper mi as she sidered the question, “Yes, as a representative of the Kuic Kingdom, I find those ditions to patible with your duties as an assigned envoy to an affirmed and trusted ally that needs our active support,” She shook her head when she was dohen sighed, “Great, I am going to o write it up as an addendum, get ynatures and sign it myself, and then go get this recorded in person to make sure it’s official. I prefer avoiding the court, if I am there as Prihen I ’t show any signs of being a kitsuoo.”

  “Okay,” Bellona said, “Well, I guess that clears that up. I still have questions about how you are also a kitsune, but I suppose that wait. So, the pque upstairs didn’t go into great detail about the duties of a tractor, what else should I know before I sider it? And what are the other bes?”

  “Holy, it’s pretty straightforward,” Mordecai said, “Defend the dungeon, gather new materials for sampling, escort inate avatars, and otherwise be avaible to assist as needed. Obviously, you ’t do everything at once, which is why having multiple tractors is useful. Moriko has done all of those at one point or another, including pying the part of our river floor’s Boss when we had a tempap to fill. She also provided some training to some younger folk up on the first floor. That sort of iion also helps improve mana flow.”

  He shrugged slightly. “There’s a lot of downtime really, so you do as you like so long as you remain avaible. As for bes, well, we are already providing you with room and board as an envoy, so that’s redundant. A tractor also stops aging while in their dungeon’s territory and is on the same heal and revive cycle as inhabitants are. Material bes vary by dungeon, but since we have a higher-than-normal ability to craft from raw materials, thanks to my previous history, we keep year up to date. Money avaibility varies, but if someorades us, say, half a dozen cut gems for a dozen rger, raw gems made from our mana, then those cut gems would be avaible to firips or what have you,” Mordecai gri Bellona, “I ’t say that many tractors bee indepely wealthy from the deal, but the living ditions are fairly luxurious here and you still get whatever the pay is from Kuic for being an Envoy.” Keeping the kingdom and the person separate in his mind was a little strange.

  Bellona gruhoughtfully, “I see why some people would seek it out. And I am sidering it, but I’d like to get to know you all better first. And while you said that you’d accept my prior aplishments as proof of my martial skill, I wouldn’t mind a spar either so that I know what to expect from you too. Well, I would like to settle in ahe road dust off. You said that the bunkin will get me food whenever I like, but when do you normally eat?”

  Mordecai gestured toward the others in the room. “For the moment I don’t bother unless I am dining with my guests, but Moriko and Kazue like to keep a more normal schedule. You talk with them when it's relevant, but if you want to eat when others eat, these are the oo talk to.”

  He took his leave to let them talk a Bellole in, but also to take some time to think about an idea sparked by something Bellona said. It would be best if all the potential defenders had a better idea of what each could do. Which would mean lots of sparring matchups. Mordecai had walked over to the final corridor leading to the feast hall, and examihe areh the crystal floor.

  Match-ups that could be scheduled in a rotation that would see sistent winners, so that people could push themselves to ever tougher fights. Multi-round eliminations seemed fairest, plus setting a baseline of having cleared the library level on the bat route. He’d set himself up as the final boss, and maybe bump some of the known stronger entrants to ter rounds just so that the other entrants had more of a ce to show their skills.

  His thoughts were shared with Kazue and Moriko, with Moriko’s first thought being, “Don’t you dare do that before we get back! I want to participate!”

  “Hah, you are one of the people I would seed into ter rounds. But I’d want to let word of mouth spread anyway. I’m thinking when you two get back from the first p of your trip would be good timing.”

  Kazue didn’t mind the idea at all, but ohought in particur made her happy. “I bet the einherjar would want to participate. And maybe that would distract them enough to keep them from feeding my poor tea pet mead and ale all the time. Those aren’t the right colors!”

  Mordecai grinned as the two women started adding their thoughts to his idea for a tour. This could be quite fun.

  Speaking of fun, he should go find Li, a Bellohe ratling she’d been chasing ba the capital. She matched all of their posted qualifications for tractors, but he wao let their iion be a final personality test. Mordecai retty certain she’d be fine, but if their previous iion proved to be a sore point, well, that would be a point against her.

  And this wasn’t an option he expected to have for too much longer. Spending too much liime as a single shard in a particur area always seemed to put a strain on the shattered god, and holy, Mordecai was surprised that the ratling was still present. It made him a little nervous too.

  Zagaroth