After telling Serily about Corez's request and Oristrella’s response, Ferrisdae and I left the dungeon for the bleak, frozen landscape of The Ground. Due to the series of unfortunate events that involved the broken dungeon, by my reckoning it was only early afternoon when we emerged.

I put away my sword and shield so that I could pull out my Sending Stone, when I saw Ferrisdae staring at the blue ring in the palm of her hand. That was what granted her safety from the cold of the storm, but she looked to be just fine now.

"I’m guessing Oristrella's blessing is protecting you from freezing?" I asked.

"Huh?" she asked, looking down at me and clutching her ring like she had forgotten that I was there. "Oh, yes, it doesn't feel like downright immunity to cold, but the resistance is so high that it might as well be."

I whistled appreciatively. "That's pretty nice. Anything else going on for you other than that and Ice Sight?"

"I can empower my spells with ice magic, I think," she said, then frowned. "I'm going to need to spend some time with this."

That was understandable. Intuitive or not, the blessings of a Dragon could take some muddling through, especially if the creature in question wasn't holding back. Which, apparently, Oristrella was not. I became lost in thought. The biggest question was why?

She had already been hesitant to give up the location of this Dungeon Master guy, but flipped so easily. You could chalk it up to her inherently chaotic nature, but even the most chaotic of Dragons had reasons for what they did. Now she was sending Ferrisdae off to her suitor with boosted spells and a flurry of new buffs?

Was it really just because of the book? Sophia was never much of a reader, I knew. She could fake it - she was really good at faking a lot of things due to her inherent style of magic - but could she fool Oristrella?

Ferrisdae, at least, was nothing if not enthusiastic, especially about this story. Oristrella may have enjoyed that youthful enthusiasm. She may have also wanted to make sure she had her choice of Inspectors in the future, and Ferrisdae was a fair choice to her.

"- stand there?"

I snapped my head towards Ferrisdae. She was staring at me, my hand still in my pocket, from inside the Skymirror Carriage.

"Come on, sir," she urged. "Stop staring off into the snow and get in. You can stare off into space while we're on the road."

Nodding, I pulled out the Sending Stone and stepped into the carriage. Once we were both seated, the astral horses began meandering forward. "I'm thinking about Oristrella, the blessing, and why she gave it to you."

“I don't know," Ferrisdae admitted with a shrug. "I believed her when she said she was in a great mood. Blessings also feature prominently in Of Dragons and Dungeons, so that could factor into it."

"Is the story really so good that a centuries old Dragon with a massive library would fawn over it?" I asked skeptically.

Ferrisdae scowled. That was a new one; I had never seen that look on her face before. "Of course it is, you're the one who's odd in this situation," she said with conviction. "I mean, I'm not going to ask for a new mentor over it, that was just a bit for Ori, but you're on some seriously thin ice here, mister."

I arched my eyebrow at her. The color drained on her face as she realized how she just spoke to me, but I waved her off. I didn't need stammering apologies. "While I certainly don't appreciate being talked to like that," I said with a slight warning in my voice. "I'd rather you stick to your convictions and passions than become a foolish yes man. But, and take this to heart, don't you call me ‘mister’ like that again."

Ferrisdae gave me an uneasy smile, and then bowed her head slightly. "I'll try, sir," she said. "You should give it a try, though. The book, I mean. I feel like you could enjoy it."

"I prefer my books to be non-fiction," I said, beginning to fiddle with the Sending Stone. "We have to report in. The chief needs to know about this."

I swiped my thumb across the stone, moving it in a swirling pattern that would connect it to one in Brackenhorst's office. The chief wasn't the one who answered, but Millicef, his assistant and leader of the administrative team. Before I could even say anything, she was already talking.

"I don't have a lot of time so we're going to have to make this quick, Badger," her voice said, emitting from the Sending Stone. "Why do I have a member of the Adventurer's Consortium vehemently claiming that one of their members was invited to subjugate Razorbeak's caravan?"

I leveled Ferrisdae with a disappointed look, and she sighed. "Sorry, Mils," she said. "I had a… momentary lapse in judgment while thinking about how everyone but the secretary of the Mage's Guild went into the blizzard because there were new signs of changing magic. I thought they might try to shelter in the caravan, so I invited one of the adventurers who came from Oristrella’s dungeon."

There was a pause from the stone. "Well, now you're stuck with him," Millicef started. "We're all too busy trying to put out all of these fires and, whoever this adventurer is, he has some high connections. You'll meet him in Crystal Snows before heading into the blizzard."

"If only bureaucracy could have slowed that down," I lamented. I felt the carriage slow and change directions, no doubt now heading to the city.

"There's a time for bureaucracy and there's a time for action, we're firmly in the latter and we aren't going to clean up Ferrisdae’s mess," Millicef said coldly. "Speaking of action, what happened with Oristrella? You reported back faster than we anticipated, was it cleared out by those adventurers?"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Ferrisdae and I shared a glance. "No, they were sent back with the princess and the loot with no fighting necessary," I said. "Someone calling themselves The Dungeon Master…"

"Master of Dungeons," Ferrisdae said, like I knew she would. I rolled my eyes at her.

"... Is in the process of converting Oristrella's dungeon. It's an unprofessional, anger inducing mess in there, and of course the Dragon is unrepentant," I said with a scowl.

"Ori said that she traded ownership of the dungeon for a glowing rectangle that had hundreds upon hundreds of books on it in languages she didn't know," Ferrisdae explained. “She called it a tablet.”

Another pause. "That brings up a few questions. First, Ori?"

"They bonded over a book series and a disdain of me for not having read it," I answered. "Ferrisdae also received Oristrella’s full blessing, if you could believe it."

"You're saying it, so I'm going to believe it," Millicef said. "Congrats, Ferry. Also, hundreds of unknown books make sense as a gift to her, but why did he want her dungeon in the first place?"

Ferrisdae coughed slightly. "Well, it's…"

"He's a suitor, and apparently it worked," I said. "But we didn't ask. The guy's apparently the reason why Razorbeak's up here."

"That's… big news," Millicef mumbled. I could almost see her face scrunched up in thought. "Maybe it was a good idea for us to not bother denying the Consortium."

"We'll see," was all I had to say about Cojisto.

"That's exactly right," Ferrisdae responded at the same time, as if her invitation was some prescient move on her part.

"Well, you best figure out what his intentions are," Millicef said. "We have some guy showing up laying Dragons and changing dungeons? And now we have dungeons springing up everywhere, too. Isn’t this how the Continental Dungeon began?"

"That's just an unfounded rumor, Millicef," I sighed. "More of a legend, at this point; it's been centuries since the event and you know how the Gnomes were about bookkeeping back then. You know how the Gnomes are about bookkeeping now."

"I suppose. Just be safe, okay? And swift, but mostly safe,” Millicef said. "Okay, I really have to go, but I'll put this in the chief's urgent bin. Pick up the adventurers and get some rest while you have the chance. Good luck Badger, Ferry."

The stone went silent, leaving us both staring at it. "I know I'm new, but it seems like there's been fire after fire since I started at the DoD," Ferrisdae mused.

I began removing parchment and ink so I could start my report while the details were still fresh. "You get used to it," I told her. "The problem with dealing with dungeons is that it's almost all fire fighting. It's a feature of the job.

"Speaking of the job," I continued, tapping the parchment. "Let's talk about form 15.3, Dungeon Delving For Non-Subjugation Purposes…"

******

The ride back to Crystal Snows was not a quick one, but I lost myself in writing the report. This was usually not something I would do in a carriage, but I was becoming spoiled by Ferrisdae's spell. The ride was just so damn smooth, I didn't have to worry about spilling ink or jostling causing errant markings.

"They're out there," Ferrisdae said, staring out of the front of the carriage.

"Hmm?" I asked, looking up at her.

"Cojisto and Moose," she said, pointing. "They're talking with the guard."

"Cojisto is talking with the guard," I corrected. I looked out of the window to see that the boisterous man was now waving at us from the city's gate. The moose was beside him. It had to be at least seven feet tall, dwarfing both men, with an impressive set of antlers.

The carriage slowed down to a stop in front of the open gate, and Cojisto opened the door to the carriage. "That was really rude, but I forgive you," he said, giving Ferrisdae an easy smile.

My junior looked taken aback. "Excuse me?" She asked.

"I have already forgiven you, so you are excused," Cojisto claimed. "I was ready to go into the blizzard, told everyone my intentions, and they all said it was a bad idea without magic. Moose could have died out there."

Not him, I noted, just the moose named… Moose. "You did tell him to meet us there," I said. "That could have been very dangerous. Easily could have really ended poorly."

"I-I…" Ferrisdae stammered.

"That is why I made sure to get in contact with the Consortium and had them send a messenger to the DoD, so you would know to come get me," he continued. "Moose and I have been waiting with Guardsman Greg."

"We could have been a lot longer," I said. "I'm surprised you were waiting for us in the cold."

"I had faith in you two," Cojisto said with a wave. "Are we going now? Or do you two need some time?"

Ferrisdae looked at me, and I shook my head. "As important as this is, we're going to rest and leave in the morning," I said. "We don't exactly know where we're going or how long it'll take us to get there. Wandering aimlessly in the dead of night will only be a detriment."

"That is very fair," Cojisto said. He looked at Ferrisdae. "Princess Koritha was very interested to learn that you were about to storm the dungeon. She said that you were both welcome to stay with her for as long as you find it necessary."

I saw Ferrisdae cringe; bad terms indeed. "We should," I said to her. "We've spent nearly eight hours on this thing today and we need to be fresh for tomorrow. A night's rest won't hurt as much as it helps."

"And if you get a room at the inn, then she'll be extra cross with you," Cojisto pointed out.

"Or we could go to the Mage's Guild and spend the night there?" she asked me hopefully. "They have to have a lot of space now that their members have run off."

"No, you'd be able to stay there," I replied. "I'm just an ordinary non-magical person, even if it's just one guy there I'd probably end up coming into the city for an inn."

"Magical overbearing pricks. Won't even let Moose in and he's magic!" Cojisto said. He looked at us both in turn as we looked at him incredulously. That was the second time now that he said Moose was magic. "What? He is!"

"How is he magical?" I challenged.

"When Moose is around, things happen," Cojisto said with a grin. "Things that can only be explained by magic."

"Such as?" I urged, wanting the man to continue.

"Sometimes, when I feel hurt, Moose comes over and everything is better again," Cojisto explained.

I glared at him, but he just smiled back. I couldn't tell if he didn't care that I was glaring or if he was just too oblivious. Either way, what he just described was an emotional support animal and I was done entertaining this line of questioning.

Instead, I looked at Ferrisdae. "We're going to take the princess up on her offer," I told her. She groaned, but gave a silent assent. "Cojisto, will you lead the way?"

"Of course!" the man shouted before moving away from the carriage with a little hop.

“He’s just going to be loud the whole time, isn’t he?” I whispered to myself.

"Guardsman Greg!" Cojisto shouted loudly, confirming my fears. "My friends and I are off to see the princess, keep up the extra fine work you are doing here!"