Havia led her father hesitantly into the kitchen, the sound of laughter and the clinking of cutlery on plates greeted them, a comforting cacophony that had prepared them as they approached the door way. The kitchen was warm, but not uncomfortably so, a fire crackled at the far end of the room, the aroma of cooked meats flooded their senses. The large table in the centre of the room was arranged so that whoever was cooking could use one end, and everyone else could sit around the other.

Quink, who had cooking duty today, was currently regaling Juko with a bawdy tale about Utig, involving the barbarian’s inability to hold his liquor. The half elf was red faced with an ale in his hand and a plate stacked to its limit before him. Havia hadn’t seen her brother in such a casual, family environment for many years. She stopped in her tracks as she watched him laughing with Quink, the mage was grinning and pointing at the embarrassed barbarian who stood near the fire. The remains of a boar turning above it on a spit. A simple gnomish device was attached by a loop of cord, insuring it rotated evenly as Utig hovered nearby, ready to slice off more of the meat.

“Ahh, the other guest of honour.” He intoned, smiling warmly to the thief and her father. Clearly relived to have someone else to distract Quink from telling more tales of his misadventures. “Antios has gone to find some wine. Juko here was just telling us that even at fourteen you could drink most nobles under the table Havia?”

Juko looked appropriately embarrassed, but surprisingly her father let out a loud raucous laugh and slapped her on the back.

“She was stealing sips of wine from the age of four, and pilfering from my liquor cabinet by ten.” Kirvos’ laughed. His ability to adapt to almost any social situation had paid him back a thousand-fold in his career, and right now he was acting more like his younger self than Havia could ever remember. A glimmer of memory assaulted her, their mother was sharing a tale about one of her adventures, their father smiling as Havia sat, enraptured, in his lap. She was pulled from her revere by her father walking past her towards the table at the heart of the kitchen.

“Quink, I presume?” He bowed casually towards the mage, now wearing an apron above a simple dress instead of her dark robes and shape hugging leathers. Despite the simplicity of her clothing, she still managed to radiate a sex appeal that Havia found dangerous, for various reasons.

“And the strapping gentleman dishing up what smells like an excellently seasoned boar, must be Utig?” Kirvos redirected his attention to the barbarian. Utig had been working on the barn all day, although his hands were clean the rest of him was spotted with patches of sawdust and dirt.

“Aye sir, that I am.” He waved a kitchen knife in the air before turning back to inspect the sizzling boar. “Let me finish carving, and then I must take my leave. I’ve a couple of tasks to finish before I can rejoin you for the evening meal. And I’ve been informed I need to remove the stink of an honest day’s work before I’m allowed to eat at the table.” He gave Quink an expression of pretend hurt, much like a toddler fishing for sympathy from their mother. This was rewarded with a laugh from Kirvos and Juko whilst Quink waved a ladle in his direction.

“You spend way too much time either getting dirty or washing it off.” She chided playfully as she ladled more vegetables and potatoes on to plates. As Utig returned his attention to the boar Antios entered from behind them. Side stepping Havia and her father, before placing an abyss pouch on the corner of the table.

“So sorry. I found yet another bag with ale in, but today calls for wine. It took me a while to find it but this should be the right one.” He thrust his arm into the bag up to the elbow, giving the illusion that he was rummaging under the table, and quickly proceeded to pull out several dust-covered bottles of wine.

“I need to assist Utig with a chore but we will return as quickly as possible.” He said, smiling reassuringly at Havia whilst Utig placed a platter heaped full of meat onto the centre of the table.

“Aye, we will make short work of it my friend. Quink, my sweet, everything looks amazing.” The barbarian swiftly danced around the table, placed a kiss on the mage’s cheek, and made straight for the back door leading into the garden. Antios followed, without kissing the mage.

***

Iki woke, their senses reeling as they tentatively opened their eyes. Fighting a bought of nausea, they sat up on the cot. Across from them, on one of the other cots, sat the echo. Dath was watching the kobold intently, tapping his foot excitedly.

“How are you feeling? That was quite the thing.” He asked, talking faster than usual as they fetched a water skin, Iki put a hand to their head, the pain starting to subside. After a few gulps of the cool, fresh water, the room quickly stopped spinning, and soon their stomach was no longer lurching.

“Feel bad, like a blow to the head. What happened?” They asked, patting themselves down. The kobold still wore their crude leathers, but their cloak was draped on the cot beside Dath. He’d sat back down while she drank, but continued to fidget, after a moment he stood again and pointed at one of Iki’s pockets.

“I wasn’t sure what would happen, but, but by forcing the pebble to accept you, it forced you to change in order to accept it?” The echo watched while Iki fished the pebble out of their pocket. A look of wonder on their face. The echo took a deep breath before continuing to talk. “As I am connected to the dungeon, via the nexus, I can monitor certain details of adventurers, and also denizens of the dungeon.” He sat back down, but couldn’t hide his excitement. “You were categorised as a monster, as such I only got to glimpse your basic stats and abilities. Now, well, now you are an adventurer. If I’m not mistaken you have at least one level of fighter and thief. Although I won’t know the specifics until you review yourself at the font. When you feel better. Then we will see what else has changed.” Dath stood again, pacing around the cot, watching as Iki flipped the pebble in their clawed hands.

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“So, I can use ether, like the others now?” They asked, swinging their bare feet off the side of the cot, and instantly regretting the fast movement.

“More than likely. I think we have found a way to cheat the nexus. Just how much it has changed you, well, thats yet to be discovered.” Dath replied, watching nervously as they got their balance.

Iki glanced sideways at the fidgeting echo, the sides of their mouth arching up in a smile as he fussed over them, concern evident on his face.

“Let’s go see what is what, hey.” They said, taking a tentative step from the cot and side stepping around him.

“If we wait too long you will crack your shell with excitement.” They laughed as Dath smiled, embarrassed.

“Do not rush on my behalf, I’m sorry. This is something new, something different, we can take it slow.” He was talking to an empty room, as Iki had already made their way back towards the font in the middle of the nexus.

There was a moment of hesitation as they held their clawed hand above the indentation in the top of the plinth, grasping the pebble. And then they placed it down, with a sharp click and an intake of breath. There was silence for a moment.

“These, these are my stats? And the amount of ether I have to spend?”

Before them was a page, floating in the air like writing on a plane of glass.

Dath placed his hand above the Kobolds, waiting patiently while they stared.

“May I?” He asked. The Kobold dragged their attention from their stats and nodded at the echo.

“Of course, my friend.” And the echo smiled warmly, placing his hand atop theirs and reading over their shoulder.

“It appears you actually have two levels of fighter, and one of thief. Oh, and a thief subclass which is currently locked. That means you need to either spend ether on it or get the right equipment to start using it.” He carried on reading. “Sometimes it requires you to do something first, before it fully unlocks. Seeing as it’s a thief subclass it could be a fighting class, like assassin or a more technical subclass, like locksmith.” The kobold purred to themselves as they looked at the details before them. It didn’t all make sense, but it was exciting.

“See here, you have quite the amount of ether, not quite enough for another level, but you will get there in no time.”

Iki purred again, this would make travelling with the others more fun, she felt that bit closer to being one of them.

“You know, this pebble, it has another function? Yes?” They asked, looking up at Dath, her smile widening.

***

The broken streets of K’valaor stretched out before him. A mist shrouded graveyard that no living creature could withstand. It was beautiful.

The guilds didn’t know what had caused the destruction of the great city. Once a thriving metropolis, it had been the centre of magical research for the world. As well as a thriving home for adventurers, using the dungeons to help subsidise the city’s growth. Now, it was a testament to the folly of gods and mages.

He surveyed the decades old devastation unable to suppress his smile, it had been a glorious first try. Whilst success had been limited, he had at least broken the walls of his cell, and discovered new limitations. He turned away from the vista of rubble and poisonous miasma, the frustration was bubbling up within again.

He danced the familiar route across broken fragments of dragon stone. A path he could trace with his eyes closed. It had taken him years to lay it, piece by broken piece. The buildings around him were just heaps of melted stone, rubble, and ash. It had taken time to collect the fragments he could use. Now he had a network of stepping stones connecting a once powerful temple with a fractured teleportation circle. Like a child’s game, he stepped, turned, twirled, and jumped. Travelling from the ruin of the mage’s tower, through the old temple and finally arriving at the void in the centre of the city.

This was the source of the miasma, a constant maelstrom of chaos magic, turning the ground as it writhed against existence.

His old cell, the centre of his home.

At the edge of the void was the largest piece of dragon stone he could find. He had been lucky that so much remained. The old temples had a decadent habit of paving their sacred chambers with it, and he had scrounged every piece he could to lay his path. This particular slab was suspended above the void, like a finger pointing into eternity.

Erida stepped out atop the sliver of Dragon-stone. Arms outstretched as he looked down, deep into the centre of the maelstrom. He stared down into the abyss for what could have been hours. His hands still caked in blood from retrieving the pebble from the clerk.

The pebble.

He reached into his robes and produced the smooth, polished fragment of dragon stone. Focusing intently on it, squeezing it until his hands turned white. knuckles standing out.

And then he gasped.

“NO!” He yelled.

“It’s still not working, nothing, nothing is working.” He turned his head to the heavens, clutching the stone to his chest, eyes wide, lips drawn back.

“I was sure that would work, it’s what you do, isn’t it? Get them to farm the Ether for you, and then devour it for your own ends.” He was now shouting at the heavens, rage making his eyes bulge, spittle flecking his lips.

“I just need a bit more, just a bit more and I can be free. To be, more.”

And then he threw the pebble into the void.

Theres was a sound, as if someone in a far-off room dropped a large book.

For the briefest of moments, a slither of light fractured the darkness of the storm writhing below. A wave of energy that spread out to the very edge of the maelstrom.

And then it was gone, the results of a plan, years in the undertaking. He had other puppets, other irons in the fire, but this one had been the most promising.

“Oh father, how you must be laughing now.” He whispered. “The easy way was the least likely to work, I guess. Now to do it the hard way.” He turned form the abyss and danced his way back towards the cracked and pitted teleport circle.

“I will be made whole.” He whispered to himself, turning to look back at the mist shrouded ruins, his words growing in volume to echo through the dust choked air.

“I will look you in the eyes father, and you will cower before a new chaos god.”