A book hovered in the air above the new basin, carved directly from the rock in the newly-refurbished shrine. Its pages were flipping continuously, and as many minions sat on the floor like some diabolical mockery of a preschool story-time. If only minions could be made to take a nap afterwards (sometimes they did out of laziness, but never when you wanted them to).

{And thus the unnamed Dwarf martyred himself by driving the Moon King's flying chariot into the Temple of the Sun, ending the threat of two evil sorcerers at once. The First Hero promised never to forget his sacrifice, going on to free the Dwarven race from servitude, eventually allowing them to join the Hegemony as equals. But that is a story for another time.}

A collective cry of “Awww.....” came from the the crowd: even though they might not understand half the words, they were still sad the story was over. Even Arc had to admit, that was one of the more enjoyable tales.

“Too bad it's probably made up. Well, more than the rest, anyways.” he thought aloud. {Not even the author believed this one, Arc, but Kat sees the faintest hint... That the truth have simply been too strange to believe in the first place.} Arc shrugged. “I suppose we'll never know”. {Actually... With enough power, Kat could-} “Do something relevant to our needs.” Arc said with a stern voice. {Aw, Arc's no fun!}

He was still angry at her for wasting the Power she'd gained in the incursion. It wasn't reshaping the room that did it; all she'd done there was to move the carving farther from the tunnel it connected to, narrowing the passageway to keep the overall volume the same. And then softening or reinforcing the surrounding earth and rock to help the minions excavate.

From his understanding, using power in that way was like putting stress on a muscle: it'd be exhausted temporarily, but eventually could be used again so long as it wasn't strained. By that analogy, what Kat did was remove some of her own muscle fibers to make an automatic door-closer.

---------

“Kat, where did your shrine go?” Arc was standing dumbstruck, staring at a patch of empty wall looking just like the two on either side of it. Kat's reply was more impish than usual. {Behind... Arc!}

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Sure enough, he turned around, and there it was! The entrance to the shrine room. The new arched entryway large enough for a Human to pass through without ducking looked like part of the original design.

“...Hasn't it always been on the other side of the tunnel?” Arc's memory was usually very clear, but now he was starting to doubt himself. {Kind of. Sort of. Yes and no.} He felt the need to sit down for this one, but there weren't any chairs in the sewer. So instead he leaned his back on the wall and knitted his brow before asking the inevitable question. “Kat... What did you do?”

{Kat saw an opportunity, invested Power to make shrine's position objectively uncertain.}

“Invested... You mean to say, you permanently spent it.” {Kat merely closed the loop-} Arc raised his off hand and interrupted “Just, how much did you spend.” {Arc knows Power is unquantifiable.} “Qualitatively, then. How much, relative to the amount you gained from the incursion.”

Kat didn't respond immediately. Eventually, she reluctantly answered Arc's question. {Most. Almost all.} Arc gave a heavy sigh. “Kat...”

However, this time it was Kat's turn to interject. {But now intruders can't reach the shrine unless Kat wants them to! Arc should be happy!}

And indeed, he should be proud that Kat was being more independent, but Arc had perhaps forgotten that the Dungeon belonged to Kat in the end, and that he was a mentor or steward at best.

He gave no reply, but after a minute of silence gathered the things he had dropped on the ground and wandered off. His hidden refuge had been one of the casualties of renovation, anyways.

---------

Any hostility had faded by now, of course, but even the minions could sense that some tension remained. What they thought of one of their kind apparently arguing with their deity, none could say for certain. Rocky clearly frowned upon it, Pantimus held a more guarded expression, and Scrooge was too busy remorsefully ogling several of his “blingies” that had been appropriated as decorations.

Arc did his best to ignore all of them as he brought up the next tome for perusal. This one had a small lock on it, but it was easily picked. “This should be the last one.” Arc said as he swapped it with the book that had just been finished.

But Kat didn't start narrating its contents like the ones from before. {Hmm... Kat can't scan this easily. The words were supposed to be secret, so the meaning is hidden.} Arc grunted in frustration. “It figures. That was probably a diary or journal, which would hold the next clue about your origin.”

Rocky entered the conversation. “Then this meeting, adjourned it is.” (He'd been making an effort to speak more like Arc and Kat.) Pantimus followed. “Taskmine todo, gowe now.” (He, on the other hand, had made no such effort.)