Four people stand amidst a sea of loot sacks, the largest pile closer to ten glowing, slightly curved sabers floating in a single line and creating a triangle with the corner of a vast room. The three of the slightly singed adventurers stare dumbfounded at the fourth who is laughing maniacally.

"I knew it! I knew it would work!" Dawn shouts in a hoarse voice, coughing once or twice after breathing in a bit of ash or pixel dust, which ever is still floating around the charred environment. After clearing the second to last floor of the building, the group only has one more to go before they can presumably explore the final floor of the dungeon.

Their Major Quest requires them to patch up a leak in a tributary of a leyline, a river of magical energy that has the properties of plasma, rather than liquid or gas. It suffuses itself into the environment and eventually into people. Sometimes, if it is dense enough, it will spontaneously manifest life in the form of creatures, called monsters, that more than likely will act with unwarranted hostility towards other living things. Sometimes it will infuse animals and perhaps monsters, either living or dead, with too much mana. This may have dramatic effects on their physical forms, but it almost always has a greater effect on their minds.

This is, as Victoria explains it, as she had it learned in school. Except for the plasma part, since the people of Arc have yet to discover that aspect of matter. The three players: Richter Pryce, Rachel Lovegood, and Dawn Nobel deduced that together on their own.

After checking if his eyebrows were still there, Richter slings his longbow, "Yeah, it was a good idea in theory, but…"

"But, like, who woulda guessed that these particular creepy crawlies were so…" Rachel trails off while looking around the room.

"Explosive? Combustable? Flammable? Er… juicy?" Vic finishes Rachel's line while scraping dimly glowing spider guts and blood from her paldron armor over her shoulders. The stuff she flicks off evaporates in mid air. "Normally, it's not. The webs maybe. But the way they ignited like sawdust or oil was--"

"Sawdust?" Dawn asks, still fairly revved up after her plan worked. The Wall of Swords and Victoria were meant to act as a giant wood chipper defensive line for all the spiderlings as Richter used Burst Shot to catch the webs on fire and Rachel used Control Flames to help the fire spread. Sometimes, however, things don't go exactly as planned.

"Oh, yes." Victoria says, returning the swords back into their book form. "Ramona and Elsbeth would sometimes make it as a by product of their carpentry and they would sell it to Alchemists. They in turn used them for their bombs and such. Coal dust, too, apparently."

"Why haven't we been doing the same?" Dawn exclaims before motioning everyone to join her in packing up the loot.

"Well," Vic begins, stowing her weapons and shield and picking up one of the spiderling drops, "I believe bomb making requires the Tinkerer and Alchemist Classes. Mika may have them, but she's a potion and poison specialist."

"Heh… peepee specialist…" Richter whispers to himself with a grin. Either no one heard him or they just ignored him.

Vic continues unperturbed, "She might be able to throw something together, but the quality might come out as Minor, or worse, Improvised."

"Still, they might be worth investing a bit of time in." They go into a lengthy conversation about what inventory has been looking like lately and of course they get into the logistics of the rest of Linqs. Rachel falls back from the pair and strikes up a conversation with Richter as if they were only momentarily interrupted just seconds ago.

When they each got the warning notifications about maxing out their storage devices, they got themselves ready to head down the building's final flight of stairs. They checked and rechecked their allotment of potions, stores of ammunition (arrows, darts, and daggers), and their rainbow bars at least a dozen times.

"Everyone ready?" Dawn asks, already moving towards the doorway and she gets a thumbs-up from the others when she glances back at them. After a few mere steps, the three person wide stairway's design and atmosphere takes a dramatic change. Richter's four Dancing Lights lighting both the floor and ceiling so nothing can suprise them. They reach a second landing and realize that the final floor must be much further down than they originally thought. Dawn muses aloud on whether that means the floor will be much taller then the others?

Just past the third landing, as if visibly metamorphosising before their very eyes, the walls gradually encrust with dark purple scales and patches of a black shell that is reminiscent of Shadow Stalker Carapace except the glare from the lights turns into a bright indigo. The languid movements of a pile of body parts on the wide set steps catches their eyes and Dawn gives a quick Scan before she and Victoria form a defensive line with their shields.

>Scan<[Leyline Scavenger Aberration. Level 39.

[4717/1317HP, 980/307MP, 0/99SP]

When more light reveals the figure of the creature, the group recoils sharply but keeps their weapons trained on it. Like the Aberrations fought near Denagrin, this slow moving mass of body parts is just as tall as Dawn and twice that in width, covered in patches of sharp, light purple crystals; boil covered, leathery skin, and areas that could be described as eggshell with white, bristling hairs about four or five inches in length. Other than its patchwork surface, and much unlike the other Aberrations, this one seems to have a more recognizable frame. Six long, legs curl under its body with two shorter, slimmer limbs wielding claws several times wider than the arms are held close to its form. It reminds the players of how a hermit crab would defend itself. It sits, or lays depending on who you ask, closer to the left wall, leaving just enough room to squeeze by the side. Gargling breaths can be heard as the body rises and falls in a slow rhythm.

"Sleeping?" Dawn whispers to the Victoria and she nods. "Let's try to go around it." Everyone agrees with the same, silent nods and Vic moves first.

Even in heavy armor, her Strength and Dexterity are high enough that she hardly makes a sound as she treads slowly by the slumbering beast. Dawn makes Richter go next after he stows his bow. Even with training, that close to a well armored creature his ranged weapon would be next to useless. Still, it was nothing for a Rogue like him to sneak by.

Dawn goes next, the pounding of her own heartbeat drowning out the remaining sounds of the stairway. Though not as Dexterous as the others, her boost in Agility from her Half-Halfling Race keeps her armor from clanking too much from her slow and deliberate movements. Her heart, however, wouldn't slow down even after making it to the other side, afraid that the Aberration could somehow hear it too and awaken in a rage.

But when she rejoined the others, there was only the shallow, raspy breathing. A twitch of a leg sends everyone into sudden battle mode, but when nothing more came of it, they all let a heavy sigh.

Dawn motions for Rachel to come over and the Avian Faunus gives her a thumbs up, utters a single word to herself, and disappears in a low flash. When she reappears next to them, their eyes bulging and jaws slacked, she realizes too late that casting Blink Step may have been a mistake.

The flash of magic acts like the scent of food for the creature lying on the floor, the white hairs shifting about and settling in Rachel's direction before the rest of it stirs. The two arms that didn't look as though they were strong enough to even move the weight of such heavy claws drop them to the floor and use them to help it stand up. The lumbering, groggy movement of the creature would make one think that it is somehow inebriated or perhaps hungover from the night before.

"Oh, shit! I'm sor--"

Rachel's apology is cut short by a swift palm over her mouth. Vic's other hand wraps around her waist and drags her away from the stirring creature. Stalks extend into the air near the creature's front center and the tips balloon into bulbous, white eyes. One of the massive claws sweeps lazily through the space where Rachel used her Spell and if they hadn't moved further down the steps, the other claw would have found both of them. The eyes twitch in different directions, but find nothing and deflate, returning into the safety of the body.

"Hello?" Dawn whispers tentatively and when the creature doesn't respond they all let out a collective breath. "I think it has Arcane Sight or some way of viewing mana."

"It, like, reminds me of a mutated yeti crab," Rachel adds, her head tilting as she looks it over. "Even its name is something the yeti crab would do around hydrothermal vents. I think it may have escaped from the bootom floor and hasn't been able to eat so far away from the leyline. So, it got all sleepy and is maybe hibernating?"

Rachel's explanation over, Victoria's eyes lose their glaze and they all continue down the stairs, albeit slower and more cautious. "Think we'll find more?"

Richter glances around the corner of a landing, "Bro, I hope not. Um? Is it getting warmer to anyone else?" Dawn is the only one to shake her head no. "You don't count, butt head. Heh heh, get it? Cuz the horns?"

She did, and he got it from her as she clonks his head with her Thunderstruck. "Scout the next floor down and tell us what you find. Rachel, I want you to check on and keep an eye on the Aberration. Please don't--"

"Yes, yes. Oh. Em. Gee. I am SO sorry." Her eyes almost rolled out of her head and down the stairs as she trots back up to the previous landing. With her gone, and just the two of them there, Dawn pokes at Vic's arm.

"So? What's it like?" She asks, glancing down at Vic's armored midsection. Memories of conversations with other cosplayers who had children or were pregnant at the time flash behind Dawn's eyes. Their answers varied in ways, but they all had a particular core.

"Hm? Oh. Well… It's a little strange, I suppose. Knowing I have a little person growing in here." She places a hand on her stomach for emphasis. "And soon we'll have the first newborn member of Linqs."

"Make that second. Natalie Olbekket just had another little girl. She was with that party we sent with Ardy into the dungeon. I felt so bad about that, even though they all came back alive."

"Goodness. Two girls? Guess Carlin can't stem the apple?" Her laugh makes Dawn smile, but not more than that. Dawn knows how chromosomes work IRL, but not here. As Vic goes into a story about Lady Anne and her sister, she thinks about what it must be like. To have kids. To have parents. Her parents and who they might be. Would they be proud of her and what she's accomplished so far? If they're alive, would they seek her out if she ever becomes rich and famous? Would she let them back into her life?

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

She brushes those thoughts aside like she always does. For whatever reason, they weren't there for her growing up. Self reliant and selfless, she was there for the other kids. She kept in touch with a few of them and they were truly grateful. Most didn't even realize that she was the one taking care of everything and when their lives forked away from her she would turn around and they'd be gone without so much as a good-bye wave. Maybe that's what it feels like to be a parent? Maybe it's just like her friends would tell her?

"It's the best and worst thing to ever happen to them…"

"Hm?"

"N--Nothing. Just something I heard about being a parent…"

Though she's come to see Linqs as her new orphanage, the idea of her friend's virtual child being a part of it puts a new lens over her view of the situation.

"So, anyway," Victoria continues, a mischievous grin on her lips, "What do you think?"

"Wha-- About what?"

"Would you consider being a Bondmother to our child?"

"Bondmother? You mean, like--" Dawn stops herself from saying what she believes is the IRL equivalent. But, just in case, she asks Vic to clarify.

"Well, in case something were to happen to one of the parents, in this instance it would most likely be me, the Bondparent would step in to fill the role of the parents and take up all of the rights and responsibilites of the child. It only makes sense for it to be you."

"Oh, um, what do you mean by that?" Dawn blushes, her dark blue cheeks turning a shade of pink.

"Well, for starters you are by far the most responsible person in Linqs and I've respected you ever since you took up the mantle. Second, well, you are a Traveler, thus, making you immortal."

The breath Dawn held during those words came out in a relieved exclamation as Richter slides into view. For a second, she thought Vic was going to go a certain route that even she didn't fully understand yet.

"Besides, the only way you're getting him to yourself is over my dead body." This Vic says in a whisper only the Infernus could hear through a playful smile.

Dawn stammers and splutters a defense while the Half-Elf looks over the two of them and points a thumb back where he just came from. "The room downstairs is only a little ways down. Looks like a messed up laboratory of some kind, but really, really big and open. I didn't spot any hostiles, but my Arcane Vision is useless here. Everything is too damn bright."

After retrieving Rachel, who reported that the Aberration continued to sleep the whole time, they make it to the final floor. Few tables remain standing upright among shards of glass and splintered wood. Many shelves and dividing walls look as though they're reaching up in vain toward the several dozen foot tall ceiling. Multi-colored stains mottle the dark grey stone floors and their feet leave tracks in the thick dust. A rattling, throaty sound could be heard from the far end of the vast space, but there was no seeing past the clutter.

Dawn gives a low whisper to the others while she leads the way, shield and Thunderstruck held high and ready, "Really wish Ardy was here with his ears and nose. Not having a radar, or rather… Not having a way to sense danger is really a huge pain."

Vic agrees, as do the other two, and she adds to her complaint, "I've grown accustomed to having it available in these scenarios as well. Didn't the Kobolds learn Abilities from him?"

"Yeah, but they're all busy." She motions to a broken table tilted over on the floor. "If I took even a single one out of a squad it'd be like that table over there. And we couldn't drag a whole team with us this time. Anyway, we've accomplished missions without him and his face before. We can do this one too."

"He's quite good at using his face…" Vic says with a roguish smile.

Richter barks a quick laugh and stifles it with his hands, his eyes bugging out as they dart all over the room. The sound in the distance grows louder and a bit more distinct. It's a ragged moan, but whether from exquisite pain or depraved pleasure they could not say yet. Dawn shoots him a reproachful glare and Rachel punches his upper arm with a low giggle. He gestures at Vic in protest, but they continue to move forward regardless.

As they tred closer, the moans abruptly shift to sobbing and wailing in noticeably feminine tones. However, the lamenting doesn't last as long as the moaning and a growl of frustration followed by obvious cursing in a strange language precedes more of the curious sounds.

"That sounds like Elvish," Richter comments.

The crunch of glass underfoot and a hand gesture from Dawn stops the group. The previous area was a mad scramble of furniture, where things may have been knocked over in a sudden dash to escape something. Everything in this half of the floor has been splintered and shattered beyond recognition.

"This must be where whatever happened… happened." Dawn continues to observe the scene. From this distance, the far wall of the floor is visible mainly from the glow of a single corner. "What's that?"

Richter has his bow ready and Victoria swaps out her sword and shield for her own bow. "Whatever it is, it's what's causing the racket."

Indeed, the discordant moaning pulses out in waves from the large mass located right beside a single door, a limb of some kind stretching out and through a small opening in the door about shoulder high. The limb twitches violently, shaking the rest of the massive figure.

Like a much larger version of the Aberration on the stairway, the mound of limbs is covered in the same kinds of varying skins. Aside from the obvious size difference, there's a higher amount of various types of limbs protruding from the soggy mountain of mass. At least a dozen, long, lithe "arms" stick out of the sides like a spider on its back, only one of which seems trapped in the door's window-like opening. They're long enough to have a second elbow and they wave in the air, scraping at the walls and floor with what can barely be described as hands with varying amounts of fingers. The white hairs wave about when they catch the purple, glowing vapors seeping in from around the stuck arm. The hairs absorb the mist and the creature shudders and tenses all at once.

A strained, female voice comes out of woman's pale, mask like visage sitting on an undulating head, "Nooo… nooo… escape… escape… Why can't… I die…?"

The visage doesn't make a single twitch, but words continue coming out of it. As the group gets closer to the writhing mass, they can see black tears streaming and dripping from empty eye sockets and down the porcelain skin. For a moment, the group doesn't try to do anything, just stare at this monstrous being as the center of it swells and the wet, tearing of flesh and crinkle of breaking crystals fills the area. At the same time, new sounds explode from the face as, just below its lip, the chin splits and jaw tears down like the mandibles of a giant ant. A heart wrenching, throat rending scream erupts and courses through the group.

They fall back behind Dawn, the only one with a shield and aim their ranged weapons. Dawn's Thunderstruck glows blue in preperation, the others follow suit with their own Abilities. Everyone is wary of the limbs that splay about in jerky, stuttered movements in the air.

"Anyone got an idea of what's going on?" Dawn yells over the noise, but no one has a clue. The ripping, shattering, and wailing continue. Dawn has a bulb go off in her head and she Scans the monster.

>Scan<[Echidarratia Edalypse, Archmage Ether Arcanist. Tier 1 Boss. Level 55

[9972/9972HP, 15662/4989MP, 0/900SP]

"Ether Arcanist… They must have been studying the leyline!"

Richter keeps his arrow knocked and pointed at center mass, "You mean they must have fucked up the leyline! It's gotta be their fault this place turned into a dungeon. Right?"

"We can't know for sure yet." Dawn's reply is almost overshadowed by the screams.

Without warning, all sound ends. The scraping of walls, the anguished howling, even footsteps on debris fails to make the slightest bit of noise. The straining of the creature's distended body reaches its zenith and it bursts. A clotted flood of purple luminescent liquid nearly wipes the group off their feet as something big and heavy hits the floor from out of the spent body. The tangled mess the size of a sideways refrigerator is still tethered to the deflated shell of a being. The Arcanist's body is already regenerating to its previius shape.

The woman's voice, speaking through what sounds like bloodied and frayed vocal chords, is weak, almost hopeful, "My-- my baby…" The words hit everyone harder than the acrid and bloody smell of the liquid. "My-- My baby! Run! Run! Escape!" The mandibles click and leak spittle as it devolves into a gibbering mess.

The others recognize the "baby" on the floor as something cruelly familiar. They had snuck past a similar one on the stairs, but that one was lethargic, probably on the verge of death. This one, this Aberration fresh from the womb and still full of whatever is giving it energy, rises to an imposing height on its six, crab like legs. It turns to the one who birthed it and raises one of its massive claws to the ceiling.

Victoria is the one to jerk forward and freeze as the claw swings down with a thunderous crash. Somewhere behind them another shelf or table splinters against the floor and more glass breaks. The Aberration turns on its spindly legs, the chord that connected it to its mother is severed a still clinging to the bottom of its right claw. Its face, hidden from view until now including the first one they encountered, is a grotesque display of an Elvish child, pointy ears and fair skin. Its as if a mask of one was stretched across the front of monstrous crab creature and to emphasize this two eye stalks pop into the air. Dark purple, instead of white like its sibling, and very much aware of the group's prescence.

"My child… my child… Mitrim is so sorry… Mitrim loves you… Mitrim…" The words trail off into the ambiguous moaning, perhaps to begin another cycle of this birthing process.

The new Aberration takes a tentative step towards the group. Victoria is the only one to hold her ground as the others retreat a few steps. Her bow lowered, she moves toward it, ignoring pleas from Ric and Rachel.

"What are you doing, Lieutenant?" The title Dawn rarely uses even on the battlefield comes out to express just how serious she is taking the situation. When she doesn't respond, only taking another step toward the monster instead, Dawn raises her voice and asks the question again.

"I-- I don't… It must be me, Commander…" is her only reply, but she does come to a halt. All eyes lock on the two of them, awaiting any sign to act. Unsure of what either intends to do, besides seemingly stare at the other until the end of time, knuckles whiten as the audience of three tighten their grips on their weapons.

Victoria gazes longingly into the bulbous purple eyes. As if mesmerized, the newborn Aberration continues the stand there, claws a foot off the ground and swaying on its feet. The bow disappears into her storage and she simply has her hands up towards the ceature. Her lips move, sounds barely above a whisper moving past. She continues in a cycle, repeating something that becomes audible with each passing round.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Her shouting startles the creature into cowering, almost reverently, and the eyestalks sink into the body. Two sabers float behind her back, a one-handed warhammer and a Thunderstruck appear in her two fists, and a single, blood curdling battle cry rends the air. For a moment too long and too short, the others stand frozen to the spot. But, as players, they are quick to shake off the stupor and join their comrade.

Echidarratia's moans continue through the outburst and din of battle, but stop when Dawn's Divine Flash erupts from inside the face mask and engulfs her whole head in light and energy.

[You deal 188 radiant damage to Echidarratia Edalypse!]

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, baby! I'm sorry!"

Victoria's apologies and wild swings pound at the Aberration and drown out Dawn's orders. The monster barely has a chance to fight back and when the claws try to sneak an attack in, there is always at least one of Vic's weapon ready to parry or intercept. The three players keep glancing over at her while they finish off the weakened Echidarratia. For a Boss creature and its spawn, there is little resistance from either as the group drains their HP. When the Aberration finally falls and all four focus their attention on the mother, she manages to dole out two words. Through the faltering carnage and irresolute violence, two words hurt more than any Skill or Spell.

"Thank… you…"

Victoria falls to her knees beside the eviscerated body and blood spattered head, holding the sides of the pale face. Eyes closed, Vic bows her head and presses her forehead against the lips. The remaining half of a lone mandible is left hanging and dripping blood that pools around Vic's kneeling figure. A loud metallic crashing sound could be heard on the other side of the door.

"Rest now, Mitrim. Your watch is now over, you no longer have to stand guard. I… I relieve you of your duties…"

"I… am relieved…"

After a solemn moment of silence during which both monster bodies evaporate, Vic rises on trembling legs. Richter and Rachel shoot forward to catch her and keep her on her feet. Dawn asks about her well being, but she simply waves her off.

"Um, like, Lady Victoria? What was that word you and the Boss were using? The M word?"

Victoria flinches hard, grasping at her heart, as if the word itself is stabbing into her chest. Just as Rachel is about to apologize, Richter clears his throat, "It's that same dialect of Elvish, isn't it? I think it means... Matron? No… Mother?"

Vic nods, "It's also army slang, for a female sergeant. 'The Squad Mother.' She must have been…"

For the moment, the multitude of notifications and two plain sacks of loot are placed on the backburners. Although no one got to hear what Victoria thought "she must have been," several ideas come to mind but remain locked behind sealed lips.