I was roused from my practice late in the morning by the arrival of a small party at the half-built gate of our walls. There were five of them, a Human, and two other species I did not immediately recognize, three of one, and a singular individual of the other. They looked very similar to Humans, but the three in the back towered over the others and had strong, powerful builds with facial features to match.
I need to find a way to read the books Callahan bought me.
The woman at the front, though she was nearly as tall as the other three, had a sort of... insubstantial look to her, and had pointed ears, besides.
The spark at her core was brighter than any I'd seen aside from the Archmagus, but without him here to compare, I couldn't tell if hers was brighter than his or not.
Most of them wore fine, rugged clothing meant for travel with armoring here and there, but the Human wore heavy plate, though it didn't clank as much as I would have expected as he walked. The woman leading the group seemed to have some sort of armor underneath the clothing, as well, likely between layers, but I didn't look closer.
I had no idea how much I could see if I truly put my mind to it, and would rather not invade anyones privacy, in the case I could see far more than I expected.
The strangers were welcomed by Markus as they approached, and the witch-hunter led them through the camp to the mountain, introducing them as they followed.
"Lycoris, these are the 'dungeon experts' the Queen promised," he said, sparing a glance back at said experts as they followed him in. "They are adventurers by trade, contracted by the Crown to look into dungeons and slay monsters that require a specialist as they're found."
[I see. It is good to meet you, adventurers. I am Lycoris Raven Ashborn, and I have quite a few questions for you,] I told them, and changed my practice array over to a barrier to avoid surprising them with a gout of flame or spark of lightning. [Please, pay no mind to my children. They're hard at work preparing stone for the wall.]
"Likewise, Legate," the woman replied as she and her party stepped into my chamber, voice light and cheery but confident. "I am Evlynn Laithael, artificer. This tin can behind me is Eren, free knight, and the Orcs are Huw, Merron, and Iwan, hunters and a war cleric, in order," she said, gesturing with her thumb over her shoulder without looking.
Good mana senses or does she just know them that well? Both, maybe.
Admittedly, I couldn't tell the three 'Orcs' apart aside from the differences in their clothing and the weapons on their hips. They even had the same hairstyles, thick ponytails tied low and close to the base of their skulls.
Triplets? Or are 'Orcs' just like that?
Looking closer, however, I realized that 'Iwan' had a much brighter spark in him than the other two. It had just been out-shone by Evlynns to such a degree I hadn't noticed before.
The knight grunted his greeting, and the Orcs each inclined their heads, but neglected to actually speak, at least for the moment.
While Eren and the triplets(?) divested themselves of their packs, Evlynn leaned in close to my Core and studied me intensely, eyes bright with curiosity. It was a very familiar experience at this point.
[Miss Evlynn. I am still a person, no matter what my 'body' is,] I said, and she pulled away from me and had the good sense to look slightly embarrassed, though she never took her eyes off me.
"Oh, apologies, Cores are- No, I shouldn't invade your personal space like that," the 'artificer' apologized before she seemed to realize something, and blinked. "Hey, you called me 'Miss'!"
"Not like anyone aside from other Elves can really tell how old you are," one of the Orcs grumbled at her, Merron, I thought. His voice was lighter than I would have expected from someone of his stature.
[Apologies, but unless you've seen a full century...]
"Oh, that's kind of... Homey. I'm fifty-seven, Legate Lycoris. I thought you were Human? That's what Fi told me, anyway..." she trailed off, a small frown creasing her face.
[I am. Or was. But my people were ageless. I am three hundred and twenty six. I pray I have not offended?]
The Elven woman – that was what the Orc had called her – waved the apology off. "No, no. It's just been awhile since anyone treated me like my age. It surprised me. Anyway," she said, pulling her own pack from her shoulders. "You had questions for us? About dungeons and Cores, I assume."
[More so dungeons, but if you can tell me more about Cores than Callahan could, I would not be opposed. He, by his own admission, is not an expert, in either subject,] I said, and she nodded along as I spoke. Behind her, I saw Markus give a small salute and leave to return to his work. [All I know is how to speak, see, expand, and summon denizens.]
"I see, I see... Alright, first thing. Dungeon Cores can sort of share senses with their denizens, I think."
[You... think?]
"Well, it's hard to verify when the Core isn't capable of speaking, but we've noticed that even outside the bounds of the dungeon, their denizens can... coordinate. Much better than you might expect."
[Ah. Well, when Carna and Chrys are outside of my territory, I can still see them, but their surroundings are... Blurred. That might be it,] I told her, and her brow furrowed a little as she shook her head.
"No, it's more... Precise than that. I'm not sure how to describe it. It's as if... Things that shouldn't be aware of their surroundings suddenly are. If that makes sense," she offered.
I hummed a moment, thinking, before calling Fera from their work to test it, and a few moments later, they were standing in front of my Core, looking between me and my visitors, breathing heavily. They'd rushed to get here.
[I am going to try something. Let me know if it hurts or feels uncomfortable immediately, understand?] I told them, and they made a sound roughly approximating an affirmative in response.
Then, I focused my attention on my child, trying to put my consciousness in theirs. To my surprise, although it shouldn't have been surprising at this point, I felt a portion of my awareness settle into them until I encountered a little resistance, barely there are all, and stopped pushing as soon as I noticed it.
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I would not risk crushing my eldests soul, or mind, or whatever the resistance I felt was.
When I relaxed the pressure, I realized I could, in fact, seen through their eyes, hear with their ears, and feel their body as it shifted balance.
The walls of my chamber were a smooth, dark grey, fashioned to look like brickwork despite it being solid stone, and the flickering flames of the lanterns cast everything in a melancholic orange tint.
I bid my child to look at each of the visitors in turn, and they did, eager to help me with my experiments.
The free knight, Eren, was deeply tanned, though whenever he shifted I could see pale skin underneath the plates and fabric that protected his neck. His hair was a dark, woody brown hanging in gentle, sweat-laced curls over alert, bright green eyes. The armor he wore was textured like steel, but had a slight blue tint, likely an alloy of some metal I did not know.
The Orcs had dark grey skin, like the pigment had been sucked out of them, with black hair. Their eyes, though, were a piercing blue, like the unclouded sky. Each wore treated leathers with discrete metal plating over their hearts and their lower legs and feet, and Iwans outfit had plates over his forearms. Each of them had different patterns all over their exposed skin, in distinct colors, though I couldn't tell if they were paints or tattoos.
Finally, Feras eyes drifted over to Evlynn. The Elfs clothes were a light, soft brown, for the most part, with hints and accents of other colors, blue and green, and she definitely wore some sort of armor underneath the other layer, as Feras eyes could pick out a little more detail than my mana sense could at the moment. Her hair was a dark, washed out blue, cut just below her jaw with a braid that started near her temple and wrapped around one side of her head to be tied there.
She was a healthy, vibrant pale that told me she worked indoors but still saw enough sunlight to avoid turning grey, with expertly done make up framing her sapphire-blue eyes. She must have stopped in the forest just before arriving to put the make up on.
She already knew my title, so she likely assumed I might be like other nobles.
"Legate?" she said suddenly, stirring me from my thoughts.
[Apologies. It worked, it... This is the first time I have seen color outside of magic since I woke up here.]
Merron(or was that Huw?) winced a little in the back, but said nothing, and Evlynn smiled slightly. "Take your time, Legate."
[No, no. I need to let Fera get back to work,] I replied, and thanked the Kobold for their help.
The little thing smiled their Kobold smile as they looked up at me, raising their little fists in triumph. "Want to help! Happy to help!" they proclaimed, and marched back out into the mountain to quarry more stone, head held high.
I kept my focus on them for a few moments so I could listen to them brag to their siblings about what had just happened before I started speaking to Evlynn again.
[Thank you. I definitely felt I could... push a little further than simply sharing senses, however.]
"Oh? That's..." she hummed, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "You might be able to control them directly? I'm not sure."
[We can put that aside for now. There was a... resistance there, like a barrier, or... structure, I suppose, and I do not want to risk hurting my children by breaking through.]
"Understandable, Legate," she said, raising an eyebrow at the Orcs as they gestured back and forth to one another wildly.
"Nothin', Evlynn, Huw is just bored," Iwan told her, grinning wide enough for me to see some rather large canines, and went back to gesturing back at the other Orcs. His voice was the same as the other Orcs, but his tone more measured and even.
Triplets.
"Apologies, Legate. Huw gets bored easily during these kinds of conversations," the Elf informed me, shaking her head slightly at her companions' antics.
[It's fine. Regardless, I have an... idea for after the immediate threat has passed. It would help me greatly with it if you were to tell me what you know about the hazards and structures of a normal dungeon.]
The artificer grinned wide, a mischievous glint in her eyes, likely figuring out what I had planned. "I think I can do that, yes. So, it's like this..."
Evlynn, and occasionally Eren and Iwan, broke down the patterns, habits, and tactics of all the dungeons they'd ever seen over the course of a few hours. They also informed me that I would eventually be able to create 'linked Cores' that had almost no abilities of their own, but would prevent my main Cores destruction so long as even one of them remained.
Apparently, the linked Cores would use their mana to reconstitute my first Core even if it were completely destroyed, enchantments and all, and it was the primary method by which a dungeon or living fortress could increase its total mana capacity Callahan had mentioned before.
Beyond that, the only thing they were really capable of was acting as the anchor for summoning denizens, and often had extremely powerful guardians to protect them. They wouldn't even function to increase my territory on their own, but considering I could control when and where I did that already, that didn't really matter, the adventurers told me.
Modern society across the known world used the number of Cores a dungeon or living fortress had as shorthand for its danger level, as the primary Core had to have enough mana and territory to manifest and link a new one, and Evlyn claimed she'd been in a seven-Core dungeon and several six-Core dungeons, but the most dangerous was a five-Core.
The rest of the party visibly grimaced at the reminder of the five-Core dungeon, and Eren told me that since I was sapient, I might be able to make linked Cores on purpose, likely to distract from the topic.
He was clumsy in his social manipulations, but I let it pull the conversation away from the five-Core dungeon.
I decided not to experiment with making Cores, at the moment, as I needed every scrap of mana I had in order to continue expanding into more of the mountain and practice my various abilities to prepare.
Besides, I wasn't even sure I had the mana for it anyway. I would likely need to be full-to-bursting for it to work, if it worked at all, and resolved to check after we'd fended the cultists off.
Another idea did begin to form in my mind, though, a confluence of these 'linked Cores' and my ability to see through my denizens' eyes that would, if I trusted Evlynns gut, eventually allow me to puppet them like a marionette.
Afterwards, they told me about the traps and layouts dungeons seemed to favor. There were different 'types' of dungeons, but they all seemed to follow a set number of patterns, like they'd been programmed to do so, though no one knew how it was possible. The enchantments on wild Cores weren't of the sort that would allow for greater-than-insect awareness, nor information transfer.
One of the traps, a mana-draining effect, reminded me of my conversation on the subject with Callahan, and Iwan showed me an example of one at my request. It was not the same rune tradition as the Archmagus taught me, so I could not tease apart how it worked, but I did my best to commit it to memory anyway, just in case my teachers tradition did not have an array with a similar effect.
Evlynn was a veritable library of information, mostly anecdotal, on dungeons, and she had three stories for every fact or hypothesis she could explain to me in an academic manner.
She seemed intent on telling me every single one.
Eventually, late afternoon, her companions left the chamber - a quick check telling me that they were socializing with the soldiers - but she stayed behind, asking pointed questions about how it felt to be a Core, how much I could 'see' at once, and more, in between telling her sometimes exciting, sometimes awe-inspiring, sometimes tragic stories.
According to her, the 'layered' dungeon pattern, where one goes up or down in a dungeon floor by floor, was her favorite.
"People think they're very straightforward, and they are, don't get me wrong, but it's not quite true. In layered dungeons, if you pay attention, you'll often find hidden passages, secrets rooms, that sort of thing, always leading to something interesting," she whispered to me, leaning forward as if it were a secret and grinning as she let me in on it.
"Remember, a dungeon has a vested interest in drawing people in, and you can't draw people in if you kill everyone that finds you, and you never give rewards to the people that make it out," she said, eyes sparkling as she leaned back and lit a pipe with a flash of burning color from her fingers.
At some point, someone came in to give her a water skin - No, that's wine - and a meal, which she ate without so much as slowing in her chatter, and by the time she finally excused herself, it was well after midnight.
It wasn't until Evlynn Laithael, artificer and adventurer, had left my chamber that it dawned on me that she was the Elven woman the Queen was rumored to keep as a lover.
She'd even called her 'Fi' earlier!