Ferrisdae led me through more of the mansion before we stopped in front of a beautifully crafted door adorned by several instruments with music notes flowing out of them. This wasn’t something I was particularly knowledgeable about, but I could appreciate the artistic vision. After taking a moment to compose herself, she pushed the doors open.
The now crystal clear music of the violin hit me all at once as I took in the room. Instruments of all shapes and sizes were spread neatly throughout this part of the mansion. From woodwind to strings to percussion, everything had their place and it all looked gorgeous.
Standing in the middle of the room next to a lavish piano on a small stage was an Elven woman. Her eyes were closed as she gently pulled the bow across her violin, fingers delicately manipulating the strings. I could easily tell that this was Durendrelle. From the long blonde hair down to the dimples in her cheeks from her smile, this had to be Ferrisdae’s mother.
I was about to say something when my junior stopped me. Looking over, I saw her gather herself, her facade slipping on sight. I nodded and remained silent.
The piece went on for another minute or two before Durendrelle sighed, apparently content now that she was done playing. “Welcome, Dungeon Inspector Badger,” she greeted before opening her eyes. Her gaze fell on me before she noticed Ferrisdae, and she beamed a genuine smile. “My darling sapling! I wasn’t expecting you!”
Durendrelle took a step towards us and blinked out of line of sight. There was no vocal component to the spell, it simply happened. When she reappeared in front of my junior, it was as though she had finished that same step. The older Elf gathered her daughter into a tight hug, careful of the instrument she was still holding.
Just like her daughter, there was no tell that she had cast a spell like a sorceress normally would. Matriarch Akshashka’s hands turned to wood when she performed magic, but whatever was passed down from Durendrelle to Ferrisdae must not have been a visual one.
“It’s good to see you, mother,” Ferrisdae responded, returning the hug. “I finished my duties earlier, and while I was briefing Dungeon Inspector Badger he was on his way here. So, here I am. Back home.”
“So you are,” her mother replied. The hug lingered for a few moments, and I noticed a flash of doubt touch Durendrelle’s features while I waited. “Ferry, you feel… different.”
“I’ve been through a lot,” she admitted softly.
Durendrelle took a step back and looked Ferrisdae over. Her eyes flashed from green to purple as she cast the ever common magic detection spell. My junior put on what she must have thought was a stoic face, but she still seemed nervous to me.
“It’s nice to meet you, Durendrelle,” I said, offering the woman my hand in an attempt to take some of the attention away from Ferrisdae.
“I will be with you in a moment, Badger,” she replied curtly. I frowned at her tone.
“Mother, I-”
“A White Dragon’s blessing!” Durendrelle stated, clearly surprised and overjoyed by the revelation. “That’s why you feel so cold!”
“Oh, um, yeah. That,” Ferrisdae said. “We met the White Wyrm, Oristrella, and she wanted me to be her Dungeon Inspector, so she gave me her blessing. It really seemed like a political move at the time, but we really hit it off and I think that it might end up as a permanent assignment? Time will tell.”
It seemed as though she hadn’t been entirely forthcoming in her letters to her family about what had happened in the Thousand Year Blizzard. That was the right call, all things considered. The investigation was still under wraps and no one was supposed to know about the Dungeon Master, Himia, or CC.
“That’s wonderful news! That’s not something you’d likely get as an adventurer, I’ll tell you that,” the older woman said before returning to the stage. We followed after her. “You’ve gotten so much more powerful since the last time I saw you. I know you were sent on a subjugation run for one of your first missions, but the leaps and bounds you had made in a single month have been truly astounding.”
I glanced up at Ferrisdae, and she gave me a relieved look. Perhaps it wasn’t about what had happened, but the forceful strengthening of her magic wellspring. Durendrelle had mentioned her daughter’s power specifically. I didn’t know enough about it to guess at the differences between what she had seen before versus now, but might have seemed more natural now that time had passed.
“Is it finally my moment?” I asked discourteously, turning away from my junior to look at her mother.
“My apologies, Inspector,” she replied as she put the violin and bow back into its case. “I like to allow my daughter her freedom, but I can’t help but worry about her. That includes when she comes home with a strange aura about her. Sometimes I’m a little overprotective of my family, and I don’t think anyone can fault me for that.”
“Indeed” I said evenly, not letting my real thoughts slip out. “Then you won’t mind if I get to the heart of the matter now that you’ve made sure she’s fine?”
“I don’t know about fine,” Durendrelle countered. “After all, I’ve spent the last 124 years raising Ferry. I can see right through her. Especially when she’s acting strangely. Something’s happened. I don’t know what it is, but I know she’s not fine.”
I scoffed, ignoring the younger woman’s slight shift in posture. “Whatever you think, I’m still here as a Dungeon Inspector. I asked for a few moments of your time to ask questions, which you accepted. There is still work to be done, so I will be brief.”
She listened to me speak, but she looked at Ferrisdae instead. “What happened, my darling sapling?”
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“I believe you should answer Badger’s questions first, mother,” my junior deflected.
“Did you do something to her?” Durendrelle asked, looking down at me. There was an accusation in her voice.
“Excuse me?” I responded, dumbstruck on how quickly she could turn around from apologizing to me to whatever this was meant to be.
“She is clearly unhappy in your presence, Inspector,” she said as if it explained everything.
I understood what she meant even though she was clearly reaching the wrong conclusion. The only reason why I didn’t raise my voice was because I knew Ferrisdae didn’t want to deal with an argument right now. That was the whole reason for this mess, not that I would bring it up. It wasn’t my place, no matter how much misplaced self-righteous anger was directed my way.
“Durendrelle, I understand that you are a protective parent. Ferrisdae has even mentioned this, though not in this context,” I said, continuing to keep my voice even despite the disrespect I was being shown. “First, I take offense to your accusation because I’ve done nothing wrong. Second, the real question you should be asking is this one: if I were to have done something to her, would she not be a strong enough young woman to get away from me? To request a transfer or put in some kind of complaint or even to simply quit? Because I know she is. Do you think you raised someone that can’t handle the high stress work of being a Dungeon Inspector?”
The older Elf pursed her lips as she stared down at me, and I returned it unflinchingly.
For a moment, anyway. Then, I looked away. “High stress,” I mumbled to myself. The words I used hit me like a hammer, and an idea began forming in my head.
“Mother, Badger hasn’t done anything but protect and mentor me,” Ferrisdae defended while I was distracted. She continued to deflect from the true heart of the problem. “You are right, something did happen, but it’s classified information that I can’t share. Trust me when I say that I’m fine, though. I have the help I need. And! And it’s like you always say, there’s nothing like throwing yourself into your work to get over something troubling.”
Durendrelle eyed her daughter with suspicion before she sighed. “I apologize again, Inspector,” she said. “I should have known better than to make baseless claims. It’s a worry, is all. I hear some great things about how Ferry is working under the person considered the strongest member of the Department of Dungeons, but I also receive angry letters from Koritha in Crystal Snows about how you were invited but played trivia in some bar instead. Last I heard, she was under some kind of quarantine. I’ve been worried.”
I heard the apology, but didn’t react to it. Given the lie, it was bullshit anyway. My mind was working. High stress areas required extra stability. An anchor. But you wouldn’t need it for something as simple as Rage Rot, even if this was a particularly virulent strain.
“She sent an angry letter?” Ferrisdae asked.
“Blistering would be a more appropriate word,” her mother answered. “Honestly, I tossed it in the fire. I know she used to be your best friend but-”
“Ferrisdae,” I said aloud. “How old would you guess Grandfather Red was?”
My junior turned to me, surprised, but thought it over. “His dungeon is somewhere around five hundred years old, but he was likely well over a thousand before it formed around him. Somewhere between a millennium and a half to two.”
“I go there often,” Durendrelle offered, though she was confused by the turn in the conversation. “The wood from the trees there make great staffs and wands for spellcasters. I’ve been waiting for it to come back into rotation so that my party and I can go back.”
I lowered my head, thinking. A magical tree over a century old could very well have mutated a version of Rage Rot that could spread to Treants. If cultivated properly, it could have even been made to be hard to cure to begin with. If it was something inflicted on Grandfather Red with that purpose, then it could have easily seeped into the dungeon’s very own core.
“That’s actually why Badger wanted to speak with you,” Ferrisdae said, jumping on this new topic. “Some paperwork showed up in the Consortium showing that the Red Thicket was subjugated and destroyed. You and your party were the last to go in all three times.”
“We were?” she asked, surprised. “I assure you that we had no idea that something was going on. The dungeon had gotten stronger, so we were hoping that we’d have been able to make use of better materials.”
I returned to my thoughts. Perhaps the forces against us didn’t need the time for the Rage Rot to become a part of the dungeon naturally. Their understanding of dungeons were above our own thanks to CC.
“What happened to the wood?” Ferrisdae asked.
“Why, it turned out to be useless,” Durendrelle answered. “It looked strong, it just wasn’t very good for what we intended it for. I was really hoping to surprise you with a brand new staff to celebrate your new position in the Department of Dungeons, but it seems as though that’s no longer possible.”
“Really? A new staff to celebrate my job?” Ferrisdae asked, something dangerous in her tone. Her mother gave her a confused look, but I wasn’t going to let her continue.
I tugged on my junior’s sleeve. “The rot is just a cover,” I said, still not sure of myself but wanting to avoid a family blow up.
She turned her attention away from her mother. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know yet,” I admitted. “But something’s coming to me. An idea is forming but I need more information. The good news is, I know where to get it.”
She nodded and took a breath. “Okay, then what do we need to do?”
“Now that we got the information we came here for…” Closing my eyes, I took a breath and thought it over. “Ferrisdae, go to the Adventurer’s Consortium and grab my maps. The ones with the active dungeons, defunct dungeons, and the ones of interest. There should still be a clerk there this late, and they’ll know where they are. Once you’re done, meet me at the Mage’s Guild.”
“Got it,” Ferrisdae said before turning to her mother. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to stay and chat, but next time for sure.”
“What is happening?” Durendrelle asked.
“Department of Dungeon official business,” I stated before offering a handshake. She slowly took it. “Thank you for your time.”
Spinning on my heel, I left the room with Ferrisdae in tow. “That’s it?” her mother called. “Have you seen Cairosin? He’s been asking after you.”
“Sorry, mother, I’ll come back and see my little brother if I get the chance!” Ferrisdae returned as we turned the corner. She began speaking quietly once she was sure we were out of earshot. “I don’t like how that went. From her accusation that you did something down to acting like me getting assigned to you wasn’t her plan all along.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “It doesn’t matter what your mother might think, you can take care of yourself. Like you bragged when you were drunk the first night I met you, you’re a prodigy. And if she really knew who I was, then she never would have made that accusation.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Okay, so I’m going to the Consortium to get your maps, where are you going?”
“To make a deal with a devil,” I said with a scowl. “We need to get back to New Frausta to get what I hope is the last piece of the puzzle. So, I have to go talk to Sophie.”
Ferrisdae gave me a look before patting me on the shoulder. “That’s rough.”