Zagaroth

  Fuyuko’s thoughts were scattered as she tried to recover from the shock of seeing her god so casually chatting with the people around her, and that name he’d said, he’d been talking about caretaker Yvonne. She could just barely hold on to the name and a vague memory of the face, but it was more than what she’d been able to remember before.

  Mordecai’s question made her focus on him, which helped, but her emotions were a fused mess, “Um, I’m not sure. I wasn’t expe’ ta see Li here. Or, ever, I guess, this side of life.”

  He looked amused at that, “The gods step in more often than people realize, especially that ohey have limits to what they safely do, and sometimes they push those rules, but Li’s limitations are very different. And he’s been wreaking havoc with the dungeon since his shard arrived.”

  “Er, ya don’t seem ta be too bothered by that.” Really, this whole pce seemed rather strao her.

  Kazue’s illusion snorted, “It’s a mixed blessing to be sure. I had no iion of having faeries all over the pce. But I got one of them to py the part of a s witch. That’s where Li’s taking your friend. That noise is something special.”

  She had so many questions, but where to begin? Well, “So, ya really are the friend Gil was talkin’ about, but ya used ta be a girl?”

  The man shrugged nontly, “Teically, a dungeon’s core has her gender nor sex. That said, I’ve had more male avatars than female ones, and I tend to think of myself as a man.” Mordecai suddenly smiled wickedly, “Oh, I have an idea. Would you like to see the fil was talking about? As much as I like the man, there’s just something about him that makes me want to tweak his nose.”

  Was he going to show her another illusion or something? That seemed fine, “Um, sure, I guess.”

  Mordecai proved her assumptions partially wrong. He started his transformation by stretg and running his fingers up through his dark purple hair, which fell back down as long, almost lic-colored hair. A rippling ge followed the motion, smoothing Mordecai’s fad reshaping his body until a tall, geous elven woman was looking at Fuyuko with a smile. “What do you think?” She practically purred out, “It’ll annoy him to know you got to see what he won’t.” The sculpted female body was a nigh impossible blend of soft curves and toned muscles, shown off by a small top that left her well-defined abs visible and a knee-length skirt slit up both sides to show off long, smoothly muscled legs. “This avatar was a dancer for much of her existence. I didn’t focus on a wandering life for that part of my existence, I wao see the life of a more normal citizen for a ge. Mind, she still traio use her skills in bat as well, but she very rarely had any use for them.”

  Fuyuko fought back a surge of seething envy, she wao have a body like that! “You’re stunning,” she replied, “An’ I see why he talked up your looks so much. But, um, you keep swit’ how ya talk about yourself there. Why’s that?”

  Before Mordecai could reply, Kazue recovered from her own shock, pointing at Mordecai acgly, “That, that is so unfair! And Moriko agrees with me! I sent her a very clear image!”

  Mordecai looked over at the kitsune’s illusion, lig her lips with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “Well then, when she and your avatar get back, maybe the two of you expin iail what you find so unfair love. Of course, that will require you to examihis form iail…” Fuyuko wrinkled her the flirtation, she didn’t really want to see or hear it.

  The elven woman turned away from Kazue’s stunned expression to answer Fuyuko’s question. “While my wives are occupied discussing that idea,” Mordecai shook her head and ged back to his previous form, “It’s plicated. The form I just took was what my avatar looked like, but I don’t feel like the person I was while that avatar was inated. Oh, I assume some of the same mannerisms, but if I do so, it’s closer to pying a well-studied part in a py. For her, they were part of her personality,” He spread his hands wide, “While my personality here is essentially the same as the baseline personality of my core, whi turn has accumuted at least a little bit of influence from each avatar that has beeegrated when I retired them. That was a deliberate decision when I desighis form, it did not seem to be the time to risk experimenting with my avatar’s personality, especially as I did not know at the time if I would have a cain.”

  The girl bli that, “Erm? You didn’t have a core? How does that work?”

  He waved her question off, “It’s a bit long to get intht now, but the events leading up to that situation were also what led to my marriage to Moriko and then Kazue. Moriko was my host for a while, for ck of a better phrase, and I didn’t know about Kazue or her situation at the time. I basically ‘moved in’ to her core, which we now share.”

  “Wait,” Kazue said, “I just realized this means I basically took a homeless man into my home. Where, I might add, he promptly took advantage of my kind generosity. Oh, woe, whatever is a maiden to do when accosted so?”

  It took a sed for Fuyuko to realize that Kazue was teasing Mordecai, she’d hat st, over-dramatiteo make the e. They were kind of weird, and she didn’t know what to think about it. Oh, she’d seen adults flirt before, but it had been, mm, more subtle? More careful? At the least, not so carefree. Of course, everyone down here seemed a little more rexed, so she wasn't sure how out of the normal they might be. Moriko’s parents were kind of flirty too. ht, she should probably say something about that.

  Fuyuko coughed nervously, “Um, somethin’ I figure I should mention, don’t want ta seem like I’m hidin’ anythin’,” The pair stopped their flirting to look at her, “I kind of skimmed over this bit earlier, but I really wasn’t sure what with ya, and Trax mentiohat the alchemists were Moriko’s family, and sihe inns were full, Gil got us rooms there. They were nice, but we didn’t tell them why we asked them specifically. They thought it was more normal dungeon delvin' on our minds.”

  Mordeodded, “I uand, and that makes sense. Mmm, she seems fih it, though we should find a way to tell her family.”

  Kazue’s illusion eyed Fuyuko specutively, “Though she is w how well you got along with her little brother.”

  She made a face at that, why did the adults keep thinking about such things? “She sounds like her ma. But I ain’t ied.” It was really weird to be talking to someone she’d never met through a pair of people she’d just met.

  “So, what do you want to do from here?” Mordecai asked.

  “I’m not sure. I mean, it seems like someone wants me ta work for you guys, and ya seem det enough, but I dunno where ta go from here.”

  “Mm,” Mordecai tapped his thoughtfully, “Well, the obvious step would usually be to make you a tractor, assuming you are ied and prove yourself, but given ye, that might not be a great idea. tractors stop aging while in a dungeon, and will even have their health restored if they are old, so long as they stay ierritory. But it also means that your body and brain wouldn’t tio mature.”

  He shook his head, “Let’s leave that thought for another day. Right now, you are uest. Why don’t I show you around a little, let you meet a few uests, and maybe some of our cuter inhabitants.” He smiled slightly, “And we have a shrihink you’ll want to visit. I showed Kazue the trick to hiding them.”

  “Yeah, alright, that sounds good I guess,” Fuyuko said as she stuffed a few st mouthfuls of food in before rising. She almost always felt like she could eat more, but she’d eaten enough to at least not be truly hungry for now. And she did want to see Li’s shrine.

  Kazue waved from her illusion, “I’ll talk through Mordecai if I o say anything, these illusion ptforms aren’t mobile.” Then her image flickered out and the floor restored itself to its previous dition. This pce was weird. Possibly fun, but definitely weird.

  The tour of the tradepost was iing. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expeg, but the two fighting rings for testing newers were not on her list, nor the dungeon’s own store selling everything from dolls and engraved mugs to camping supplies, tools, ons, and armor. “Most of what is sold here is crafted by our inhabitants, from either materials brought in for trade by visitors or manually extracted from the dungeon. Generally, the rewards for challenging the dungeon are mana structs that are made real by being cimed by outsiders.”

  “Wait, now that I think about it, does that mean yer rich?”

  Mordecai shrugged, “It depends on what you mean by rich. We own an autonomous territory where we live in as mufort as we desire, so in that sense, yes, we are rich. If you mean by immediately liquidatable physical and fully real goods, robably about at the level of a reasonably successful mert. I am pretty certain Kazue’s father is richer in that seill. Most of the age we collect is earmarked for expenses for tractors and travel expenses for our avatars. So a rioble wouldn’t sider us ri the same way they are. But we have our own sort of power, which is often the most important thing about being rich, so which would you rather be? Indepely powerful, or traditionally rich but dependant upon the society that made you rich?” He smiled at her, “I like what we have, and Kazue and Moriko seem pretty satisfied with it too.”

  That gave her something to think about as they tihe tour. There were several small taverns and inns at this point, and a field that en for outside merts to open shop as well. The dungeon seemed just as happy to have people operating indepely out here, but given the exge earlier betwee-rabbit thing and Gil, this seemed to be part of their territory as well, so she guessed it was good for them in some way.

  After showing her around, Mordecai brought her ihe dungeon proper, where Gil and Li had long disappeared to. The giary hall was impressive, and the number of shrines was surprising. Every pantheon she’d ever heard of seemed to have its own hall, and several she knew nothing of.

  And down the hall for the Empyreal Pilrs, she found Li’s shriucked in a twist of shadows between the shrines of Mericume and Ozuran. Mordecai left her aloo give her time to offer her prayers and thoughts, for which she was grateful. There was a lot to think about.

  Zagaroth

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