The Ogre saw Corwin's lackey fall on its own blade. He would have cursed the thing's weakness had he bothered to care. To him it was just another failed experiment, something that failed to lift the burdens their master placed on its shoulders. He'd have to spend time whipping it into shape when they got back.

Except the body wasn't dissolving. Why wasn't it dissolving? That's how it went. Things die, they dissolve and are at a specific place. It's rare now but he's remembered dying, waking up, dying again, and again, and now he was staring at something that wasn't conforming to the pattern. Its head was lumped at a harsh angle and there was enough blood pooling that it can't be alive.

The four beings were talking. Normally he tuned this out. Against the Elves it had always been this sneering whine at how misshapen he was. Against the Dwarves it was always something over how tough they were. Not here. The stone woman was curled protectively around the Dwarf of the group as the . . . Elf? He wasn't sure. It lacked the pointed ears but had the height and was scrawny by its measure. So. Elf.

"Hey!" The Elf-Thing shouted at him as he marched to them. "Your boss listening?"

Confusion crept through the Ogre's features, "'Course he's listening. He Always listens when it's important, and clearing you scum out is important."

In spite of how he hefted his war hammer and readied himself to charge, the Not-Elf stood there, hand on the pommel of some sort of curved sheathed short sword. "Your fungus infected and infested someone of the Dungeoneer Confederation. It isn't confined to Dungeon Creatures. Word's been sent out. People will see it as something they can't ignore."

The Ogre grunted and raised his hammer to signal his troops, for they were his troops no matter what that whimpering dog-thing insisted, to advance.

The Not-Elf remained where he was standing. The other three. The clockwork thing that had killed many of his men. Killed him once. She was flanked by the stone woman and the dwarf as she drew an arrow.

He heard something. Some grand proclamation. He could feel Power and had presence of mind to go down on his belly as the arrow loosed.

He couldn't see. Had it hit? No. this wasn't the caverns. His eyes adjusted as dark splotches softened and cleared as he slowly got to his feet. He didn't bother looking to see who had survived. Instead he again raised his hammer to signal to any survivors to stand and fight.

"If you won't let us pass we will have to go through you." The Not-Elf stated as he drew his blade and charged.

As the Ogre brought his hammer down he was dimly aware of the other three charging forward then past him. His focus shifted back to the elf-thing as it rolled inside his guard and struck him with the pommel of his sword.

The Ogre grunted in pain as his grip changed and shoved his opponent back with the haft of his weapon. "Boss says he's in control. Everything it touches will be friend."

The Elf-Thing pivoted away from another swing of the Ogre's weapon. "And what about you?"

The Ogre spat as he lashed out, striking his opponent to the ground with the pommel of his hammer.

The two continued like this. Each managing the odd body blow, but either the Ogre would be too tough to harm, bring his weapon up in time to block, or the Not-Elf would dart in and out of effective striking distance. In time the Ogre would win this game of cat and mouse, there was simply far more of him and he was too enduring for it to go any other way.

"What about me?" He held his opponent with one of his great hands.

"Your boss would turn you and your men into meat puppets." The Not-Elf managed to get out between attempts to wrench free from the Ogre's grasp.

Undaunted and unmoved, the Ogre started hitting his opponent. It wasn't enough to kill him. He'd simply come back. he wanted to Hurt his opponent. To make him Shut Up. "You talk too much."

The Not-Elf's gaze met his own. There was no fear there as the Ogre felt the blade go through his chest.

As his grip loosened and the Not-Elf fell, the Ogre wondered how the blade managed to bite through now and not before.

As he fell he saw dropped weapons, health potions, and other bits of loot that his kind left as reminders of their passing. His vision blurred as he saw the Not-Elf kneel.

"Stay with me big guy." The voice wasn't one of disgust or hatrid. Instead it was concern. "Taru! Help me stabilize this guy!"

They wanted answers. That was the only answer that made sense to The Ogre.

"How bad is he?" The voice was crystalline, light, and it sounded like it was shouted from far away. "Ishida can you pick up the slack?"

"Chest wound. I don't want to pull my sword." The Not-Elf responded.

"Hey." He was being addressed now as he felt his head lifted. "Hey... Look. Can you talk?"

"Go to the pits. I ain't telling you nothin." THe Ogre's voice was weak. Yet even with that he almost instinctively drank the health potion held to his mouth.

"Your boss isn't just wanting to make us all minions. He managed to make that guy," The Ogre didn't see where Not-Elf pointed but he assumed it was to the goblin coward, "was being made to fight against his will. Killed several people on the way to your boss, and was going to have to fight his apprentice."

"So?" The Ogre asked between sips of the warm slightly tangy liquid. "Boss says we fight, we don't get to question."

"Yea, but you're still You." The Not-Elf countered, "You get orders, same as I get orders, but you get to pick how you follow that order."

When the Ogre nodded the Not-Elf continued. "That guy was a friend of mine. Was the guy the dwarf in our group trained under. Is there anyone you'd die to protect?"

He felt a pair of small hands. One on either side of his temple.

"Who would you die to protect?" The Crystalline voice repeated the question.

He felt something in him ease. "My men. Dying hurts and." He drew a shuddering breath, "Always afraid boss'll say they're no use and let them stay dead."

The crystalline voice again spoke. "And your boss could use that fungus to make you kill them without hesitation. He doesn't want dwellers. He wants Slaves."

The Ogre sighed. "Can't argue. Can't leave either."

TRANSFER REQUEST.

Wait what was this? He almost saw the words more than heard them. Somehow he knew what it meant. Join them. Join the dungeons he had been fighting.

"Please." The Not-Elf's voice was soft. "I'm tired of fighting. We want to make this town live again. Not-" Anything else that might have been said was cut off with a scream

The Ogre saw what interrupted the Elf-Thing. A goblin head. Except it had six spindly limbs sprouted from its sides and its jaws were clamped around the Elf-Thing's calf.

"No...." The automaton whispered even as she stabbed the spider-goblin thing with an arrow, making it dissolve. "No.... no no no... No..."

The Not-Elf gave a shuttering breath. There was surprisingly little blood. Just rows of black pinpricks where he had been bit.

The stone woman could be heard, "Kamio what did-" Her voice was cut off and the Ogre saw part of her in the edges of his vision. "No. Gods No."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Then the Dwarf spoke. "Lad. What do we do?"

The Not-Elf. Kamio? He thought he remembered hearing it called Bonehead. Whatever. He stood, testing his injured leg. "Nothing we can do. you try killing me I'll probably register as one of Midori's."

"Yea." The Ogre grunted, "That's how it usually works. One of the fungus units nicks a bloke. We kill 'em, and our enemy's down a unit and we keep 'em in the dungeon til they stop fighting us."

Bonehead? Kamio? He nodded. "Alright. Offer's still open. I'm going to go have words with your boss, and I assume he won't want to talk to me if I'm in the dungeon. so here is what's going to happen."

The Ogre blinked as a hand was put on the sword hilt sticking out of his chest.

"Your boss is going to call off this plague. I am going to get fixed so I don't lose my mind. The Alliance I am part of is going to fix this town, and I am going to open a noodle bar." Bonehead stated matter-of-factly.

The Ogre started to laugh.

That laughter died in his throat as Bonehead stared into his eyes. "Eternal beings acknowledged my right to fight side by side with them."

"I survived the death of Creation." His grip tightened on the sword sticking out of the Ogre's chest. "I went to war with things older, stronge,r smarter, and more powerful than me to save my friend's Soul."

REQUEST RESCENDED.

"I want you to remember that for when we meet again." Bonehead's voice was hard as he looked down into the Ogre's eyes and pulled the sword from his chest.

As the Ogre's vision blurred and he felt the life spill out of him he saw the four start to walk away. For a moment, before blackness overtook him, before the time between death and respawning, he could have sworn he heard music. Two Notes. One Beat

Dun.

Dun-Dun.

Dum.

----------

At the top of the central library building was a tower. Earlier Taru had used this place to shoot Lutz. Now, Ally stood there using the spyglasses arrayed at the cardinal directions to observe the oncoming armies. The elven mage used these to extend how far she could see, and thus how far her spells could reach.

A clockwork woman stood with her as Ally saw Lutz's body hit the ground and then the head detatch and attack. Only when the head was destroyed did she see the body dissolve.

There was a slow exhale of breath as her spyglass pivoted to the gathering troops at the Toymaker's border. "Naoko. Are you sure they aren't just going to pound the next guy over's territory?"

"Judging by known variables? If he cannot halt their progress they will simply bypass." Naoko's eyes brightened. "Given how we have been taking in refugees from the Toymaker's holdings it is not entirely stupid."

"But that leaves any supply lines exposed," Ally countered as her view swiveled to watch Stone Soup's group progress. "Even with an infinitely resurrecting pool of troops, that's still time from the rear to the front and they'll be harassed the whole way through."

"Reckless, yes." Naoko's voice was calm as she handed Ally a series of pouches and vials. "However it is not entirely stupid, not if they feel that they must attack quickly enough to disrupt and focus an enemy."

"Thank you," Ally stepped away from the spyglass and knelt on the ground she had stood to begin drawing a circle in red. Then a series of arcane symbols at the cardinal points in blue, another series of symbols between these in gold.

Then as she drew geometric symbols and lines connecting these, she spoke. "Bonehead tried snatching Lutz away."

Naoko watched, ignoring the arcane symbols and instead focused on Ally's body language. the shudder of a hand being stilled, slump of shoulder, those little things that show through even when someone is trying to hide what is going on.

"Whatever took him," Ally paused in her work. "He tried to stop it and-"

There was a pause before the rest came out all at once, as if she were handed a set of heavy boxes she wanted to be rid of. "Bonehead's infected now. They're pressing on, likely to try getting as far as they can before he turns on them."

"He will not turn," Naoko's voice held a calm certainty to it.

"How the bloody hell do you know?" Ally snapped as she glowered at the automaton, daring her to argue. "Lutz wasn't weak of will or spirit. He's fought charmers and blood magicians and it still got him. You think a man that can walk through someone using his blood to make a marionette of him to save me is somehow not as strong as that bag of bones that got flesh magicked on him?"

Naoko touched Ally's shoulder. Artificial eyes meeting elven. "Any answer I give will both not be enough, and you are hurting. I have faith both that I am right about my friend, and that in this life or the next, Lutz's thread will rejoin yours."

Ally was set to speak, to argue that Naoko was too calm and acted as if she knew too much about reincarnation and how the Great Weave worked. Any such argument was cut off by a suit of armor walking up the stairs and saluting the pair by banging its right fist against its chest. "Librarian," Then a look to Ally, "Magus. We have a messenger from the Confederation. They are asking to see you directly."

"Send them up," Naoko's voice calm as she turned from the armor to Ally's pattern. "Some of those I recognize. Time and Force. The Geomatracies between, I do not."

For her question Naoko received an exasperated look from Ally, "Is now Really the time?"

A nod from the librarian, "Always a time to learn. Plus it helps refocus you onto something you can do something about."

"Fair," Ally conceeded as she pointed to the lines between the glyphs. "Most of my magic takes time to cast. This circle here should essentially cheat and speed up the processes and-"

"You don't get something for nothing, even and especially with magic." Naoko cut her off. "Where's the extra energy coming from, and please tell me you're not shunting waste energy into my Library."

Ally's eyes rolled, "Librarian Please, I'm not some wide eye'd novice fresh into her robes."

She gestured to the gold symbols connected to the red outer circle. "Even if it cant' be directly used to fuel spellwork, I'm going to slave this ring to the larger one I'd asked your men to trench around the primary cluster of buildings."

Naoko's head tilted as her back straightened, "Impressive, but it won't provide enough power for an active screen so."

She paused, eyes flashing bright. "Oooooh that's brilliant! I love it."

"Love what?" Jen's voice sounded small as she was escorted by an armored golem into view.

Naoko turned, but it was Ally that spoke. "Talk to us kid."

"Tom's bailed." Jen looked to the elven Dungeoneer. "Only took one wagon. Left most of his men. Just him, his healer, and Finnal is riding to try drumming up help."

Naoko's shoulders sagged as she looked to Ally.

The elf frowned as she looked to the teenage goblin, "And you're here... because?"

"Well," Jen shifted about, unable to meet the elf's gaze as she spoke. "Shinji's sending men right now. Nyx and Erebus are being held back in case they plan on going underground to try striking through the caves."

Ally's frown, if anything, grew deeper. "That doesn't answer my question. Why are you Here?"

Naoko stepped toward's Jen. "Whatever reason, you're here now. Follow me."

Ally looked as if she were going to say something. Yet when Naoko looked to her she went back to finishing the circle she had been working on.

Jen looked as if she were going to speak, but the look Naoko gave her caused the goblin thief to shrink back and quietly fall in step behind the head librarian.

As the pair walked, Naoko spoke. "If you are here it is against Finnal's wishes. If that is the case you have defied your teacher and the man you were apprenticed to."

"H-how do you know these things?" Jen's voice was small as the pair continued walking.

"Ishida, Stone Soup, and Bonehead are all very old and dear friends." Naoko's voice was tight as the pair entered a large round room on the second floor.

At the room's center was a large table covered wit ha mosaic of maps and little wooden and metal pieces that were being moved about by the long delicate fingers of spindly automita that as a group stood at attention as Naoko entered.

"He... said all of you were my age when you got called to serve." Jen began to try explaining.

Naoko turned away from her and instead looked to the map. "Give me some good news."

A golem, either the one from the main entryway or one very much like it, stepped forward as the other automita resumed moving pieces about and updated the maps. "Midori's forces have been makinga straight line for us. No deviations that aren't caused by following the roads. The enclaves flanking us have sheltered on our grounds. The Trader Tom has abandoned the field and much of his supplies."

Naoko looked down at the map as the golem talked. "Zed, I asked for good news. This isn't good news at all."

Zed straightened slightly. "Ma'am. Judging by reports from fliers Midori seems intent on letting Bonehead's group pass uncontested. However they are nearing the edge of the parkland dungeon's known domain."

"I, uh. That's good, right?" Jen asked.

Naoko nodded to Zed, "So Noted."

Then a glance down at Jen. "As of right now you have shown an unwillingness to listen. Which puts you as more a liability than asset if I let you go."

Jen started to speak, then stopped when she saw the squared stance Naoko had, and the glow of her eye as the automaton glowered down at her.

"None of us appreciated it when Bonehead did it in his prior life, and he had the excuse of having a hunch that had both been right, and he had been skilled enough to almost follow through on his stunt." Naoko's tone was hard as she addressed the goblin thief.

"You threw your life away for an adventure." Naoko stated. "I don't have time or inclination to play babysitter. Follow Zed. You are faster than he is and can be of greatest use assisting him."

Again, Jen tried to speak. Again she was cut off by the head librarian.

"Show me you can trust that I have good reason for the orders I will give, and I will consider what you have to offer." Naoko's voice was hard as she stared Jen down. "I got drafted and I hated what it meant when I understood what I'd been drop kicked into. You're choosing this. I'm going to make sure you stay alive long enough to understand what that means before I feel you're ready to take more on."

Jen swallowed, suddenly feeling very small in front of a now imposing woman. Nothing of Naoko changed, not physically or magically. yet to Jen in that moment she was twice her size and was even more threatening.

Only when Jen stood unable to speak did Naoko look to Zed. "You are dismissed."

Zed moved towards Jen, putting a hand on the goblin thief's shoulder and started towards the stares.

"Zed." Naoko's voice caused the golem to stop.

A curt nod caused Jen to go down the stairs, leaving what Naoko had to say for his ears alone.

"Show her the kindness I can't afford."

They were gone, and Naoko suddenly had to dive headfirst into the logistics of several evacuations into her territories, reinforcements moving from allies, and four if not more companies of troops headed towards her library.