The hug lingered until Justisius passed by us, and I caught the smirk on his face. Clearing my throat, I extricated myself from Ferrisdae’s arms. “Got something to say?” I asked, clearly challenging the man.

“Absolutely not,” Justisius said, amusement in his voice. “What could I possibly say about such a… tender moment?”

Ferrisdae turned away, but I heard the giggle she tried to stifle. Rolling my eyes, I followed after my fellow Dungeon Inspector, giving Moose a nod in greeting as we passed him.

Only to immediately stop as I got my first full look at Abara’s personal office.

A series of five cages were bolted to the far wall, and one of them had been very violently burst out of by a large creature. Glancing at Moose, I could see where his fur needed to grow back from wounds that had already been healed. His escape seemed to have been painful, but it proved fruitful nonetheless.

The other three walls were covered in papers over desks and tables. Dalsarel was standing at one, frowning down at whatever she was perusing. Different magical circles, equations, and rituals seemed to be placed in a haphazard mess, though I was sure we would find some kind of pattern if we could spend some time on it.

That wasn’t going to happen any time soon because Justisius and I were staring at the largest magical crystal either of us had ever seen.

The damned thing stood in the middle of the room, tall and skinny except for the top which widened out like it was some sort of tropical tree. Just as Damartan had described, it was a shade of amber utterly incomparable to any magical crystal the dungeons on the Central Continent naturally grew. Magic seemed to pulse out from it, and it had its own glow.

“Ferrisdae,” I said, knowing she was right behind me. “What are we looking at?”

“That,” she started as she rested her elbow on my shoulder, “is a magic crystal.”

“They know that, leaves for brains,” Dalsarel said with a sigh. She turned around, looking down at me. “Your little twig and I have been passing notes back and forth about the magic crystal after she introduced herself as the junior you had thankfully left behind when you came to visit my mother’s dungeon.”

“I wanted to go, and I only couldn’t because I was trying to clean up one of the ruses that you so easily walked into,” Ferrisdae stated, crossing her arms.

“I’m nipping this right now,” I said, stepping between the two Elves. “Both of you, behave. I don’t care how many generations your animosity goes back, now is not the time. Dalsarel, I’m glad you’re okay, and we’re going to get to your story in a moment. For now, I want to know exactly what this thing is. And, yes, I understand it’s a magical crystal.”

The girls looked at each other for a moment before turning towards the crystal almost in unison. “From what we can tell, it contains such high quality mana that it’s glowing amber,” Ferrisdae began. “Some of our magical crystals become green when they’ve had time to mature, but this color is something we’ve never heard of outside of legends before. I mean, scholars have even gone on record saying crystals of this quality could never exist. This is literally straight out of a fairy tale.”

“We’ve narrowed it down to the sheer concentration of mana it holds,” Dalsarel continued. “I’ve been observing it since I woke up in the cage, since the company is poor and there wasn’t much else to do. No offense to Moose, of course.”

Moose croaked, and I turned to see that he and Cojisto were done with their reunion. I shot Dalsarel a glance at the slight, and she at least had the decency to look slightly chastised.

Ferrisdae cleared her throat. “This crystal is bleeding magic like crazy, enough to continually fill my wellspring as if I were not stuck in a magic leeching desert, but it doesn’t seem as though it’s actually losing as much energy as it should.”

“At first I thought there was some kind of feedback loop,” the Dark Elf interjected. “Something that kept the magic in the dungeon before too much of it could escape and then get put back into the crystal, but there isn’t. It’s simply got such a high concentration of mana that it’s just… existing here. Not only that, but due to the sheer size of it we think it could probably last upwards of a decade even in this environment.”

Justisius bristled at that, and I found myself sharing his surprise. Something magical lasting that long in the Laroda Jareet desert while pushing out enough magic to keep a dungeon functional and refill the power of the people inside of it? It was impossible. Such a thing couldn’t be made here.

But, it probably didn’t come from here. Dalsarel looked like she had more to say, and I glanced at her.

She continued when I met her eyes. “Our crystals back home in the dungeon can grow to about half this size if the… adventurers coming for us turn tail too many times, but from my estimate-”

“Our estimates,” Ferrisdae corrected.

The Dark Elf glowered at her, but conceded. “From our estimations… this was pruned down from something much larger. Our enemies, and I am counting myself in your number now that I have learned of their deceit, have access to more like this.”

“It could only have come from the Southern Continent,” Ferrisdae added. “It’s the only place that makes sense because it’s been covered with dungeons for centuries now. Our dungeons here usually only produce blue crystals, or sometimes green if they aren’t tended to enough, because of the DoD. They’re a staple in our economy, and as such it’s more profitable only to let it go so far. But, down there, they can just grow wild.”

“Wait,” Cojisto said. “That sounds like that Heart of Magic thing from Sasalasa, doesn’t it?”

“You mean Saralorsa, Cojisto,” Ferrisdae gently corrected.

“Yeah, the old capital down there,” he said with a nod. “The legend or whatever that says there’s some kind of big magical power there, are you two saying that these things are going to be all over the Southern Continental Dungeon?”

Ferrisdae and Dalsarel looked at each other before nodding. “Yeah, that’s what we’re hypothesizing,” my junior confirmed.

“We shouldn’t have any problems convincing the merchants to back up the expedition,” Justisius said with a nervous chuckle as he ran a hand over his bald head. “Not with this, anyway. They’ll be stumbling over themselves to get to it.”

“Yeah, that’s going to be a problem,” I replied. “I don’t think we’ll be getting this out of the sultan’s lands to show them.”

Silence settled over the room at my words. Justisius winced. “I’ll… see what I can do. We have freed his palace from his son’s tyranny, I may be able to ask for this boon from him.”

“What do you think the chances of that are?” I asked.

“Not good. It really depends on if he understands what this really means,” he answered with a sigh. “The sultan only really has a passable knowledge of magic, just enough to hold a conversation, but that’s enough to know how lucrative magic crystals are. Still, let me worry about that. It seems there’s plenty of other things worth going through here.”

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I pursed my lips before turning around and walking to the room’s entrance. Peering outside, I saw that Damartan had snuck out. “Cojisto, do you know when our guide left?”

“Heard him leave when I was finishing up hugging Moose, why?” he asked.

“Just making sure he wasn’t eavesdropping,” I said, returning to the room. I looked up at the crystal again and scowled. “I suppose that at least explains how there’s so much magic here. It’s not a good explanation, but it still is one.”

“The proof’s right in front of you, Badger,” Justisius responded. “Just because it’s the stuff of fairy tales doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Think about the ages before the Thousand Year Blizzard and all the stories of things we can’t do anymore.”

“Yeah, sure,” I sighed, waving him off. “Since my team can’t move that through the desert on our own, I’m leaving it in your hands. I’m sure Brackenhorst would tell you to find a way to get it back to New Frausta.”

“I think that’s likely, yes,” he agreed.

“And you said all your hard work had been wasted. Looks like you still get to try to call in one last favor from royalty,” I said.

He paused, thinking my words over, before nodding. “It seems like my diplomacy might see this in our hands after all, so long as just about everything goes in my favor.”

“I believe in you, Justisius,” I said, clapping the man on his back before turning towards my junior again. “Alright, now that the giant crystal in the room has been addressed, what happened after you were taken?”

Ferrisdae nodded and stood up a little straighter. “When the Gnome portaled us in, we were grabbed by the guards with thorns in their heads from the next room over. Moose wasn’t in fighting shape yet, so I went along with it. He got shoved into one cage, I got shoved into another, and Dalsarel in the third, though she didn’t wake up until much later.”

I turned to face the Dark Elf and saw the shame on her face. “You have something to say?”

Dalsarel glanced at me quickly, as if I had knocked her out of her thoughts. “Abara visited me not long after you did, saying that it was time for me to make my dungeon. The matriarch and I felt as though it was a little suspicious after what you said, but he had all the papers in order,” she answered, her voice uncharacteristically weak as she rubbed her wooden hand. “That was where I met what Ferrisdae called the Blackwood Queen. My memories are fuzzy after that. It didn’t feel like I had control of my body anymore.”

“That sounds exactly like what had happened to the Thornguard. Your memories are fuzzy, but not gone?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.

“I remember fighting him even though I didn’t want to,” she said, jerking her head towards Cojisto. “And I remember waking up here.”

“I explained what was going on, then,” Ferrisdae chipped in. “She didn’t believe me at first that I was your apprentice, but the Thornguards didn’t seem to care that we were talking so I had plenty of time to convince her.”

“Right before we get to that,” I stopped her with a finger. “Dalsarel, how’s your hand?”

The Dark Elf gave me a thin, almost disgusted, smile. “Can’t feel it anymore,” she answered, raising her wooden hand. “Can’t feel it, can’t move it, and my ability to use magic has been draining away. If it doesn’t get better, then I’m going to need to remove it. That’s going to make practicing Talspran Core very difficult, but what is life without tribulations?”

I frowned, feeling sympathetic for her. Just yesterday she had been as powerful as she had ever wanted. Dalsarel had magic like her mother, something she had desired all her life, and she was widely regarded for her skill with a two-handed sword. Now, she was not only losing something that she had wished for, but a part of her that she had worked on for over a century.

“You could, I dunno, come and adventure with us?” Cojisto offered, looking at Moose. The animal, of course, nodded.

“And what would that accomplish?” she snorted derisively.

“I mean, Moose is a Holy Moose,” he said slowly, like he was trying to make sure he was saying the right things. “He can’t do it now, but he might be able to turn your hand back to normal. Eventually, I mean. And that’s just if you don’t visit some kind of healer that could do it sooner, right?”

Moose croaked and stamped his hoof on the ground three times.

Cojisto looked scandalized. “Nuh uh!” he defended. “She’s good at fighting and I could use a sparring partner like her. What am I supposed to do now that the Dungeon Master’s rigged us up, huh? Insult Badger until he finally decides to fight me?”

“Hey,” I said warningly.

The Human threw his hands in the air. “Yeah, like that’s going to work.”

Rolling my eyes, I turned to Ferrisdae, who had her own glued on Cojisto. “You can continue your story now.”

She took a breath and nodded, looking at me. “The Thornguards were around until morning, but it seemed like we could have escaped at any time. Abara came in, completely ignored us, and replaced them with some of Kabare’s guards. They didn’t like it when we talked, so we mostly slept during that time.”

“We exchanged information when we could, and slept during the day,” Dalsarel confirmed. “Until that sleazy prince came back for his guards.”

“The way he tried to proposition the both of us…” Ferrisdae trailed off as a shiver coursed through her. “I can see why he was exiled. That man is not right in the head.”

Justisius shook his head. “Preyed on one of his father’s concubines. Seems as though exile hadn’t taught him his lesson.”

“I would have welcomed him opening my cage,” Dalsarel snorted, raising her head. “It would have given me a chance to vent some of my frustrations by letting me kick his teeth in. What happened to him, anyway?”

Cojisto pointed at me with a grin. “The moment the prince guy got distracted, Badger leapt over a fountain. He grabbed him, lifted him up, and before anyone could react at the sheer audacity this man is capable of, he started running for the exit. Justisius and I stopped any interceptors, and the guy gave up the moment he realized he wasn’t in the dungeon anymore with his precious immortality.”

Ferrisdae looked at me with an arched eyebrow. “Does he still have all his limbs?”

“Yes, I didn’t pull a Sevenslegs on him,” I said, crossing my arms.

“Wait, Sevenslegs, the spider thing with seven legs?” Cojisto asked. “Were you the one to sevenlegs Sevenslegs, Badger?”

I scowled. “Don’t use his name like a verb.”

“But, for the record, yes,” Justisius said. “Badger was the one to sevenlegs Sevenslegs.”

“Man, everything I hear about you just makes me want to fight you even more,” Cojisto giddily remarked.

I glared at both of the Humans before focusing on Justisius. “Thanks for that.”

“My pleasure, my friend,” he replied with a slight nod.

“We’re moving on,” I said firmly, letting everyone know that this topic of conversation was over. “Kabare should be in the dungeons now. Justisius thinks he’s going to get the death penalty. It’s over. Am I right in assuming that Moose broke through the cage, took out the guards, and then brought you the keys?”

“That is almost correct,” Ferrisdae said. “During the fight, one of the guards got too close to my cage. After I grabbed his keys I got him in a choke hold through the bars just like how Cojisto taught me, removed his helm, and bashed him with it.”

“Nice,” Cojisto said approvingly. “Glad to see my lessons are being put to good use.”

“They’ve been a lot more helpful than I thought they would be,” Ferrisdae admitted with a light laugh.

“To her credit, though,” Dalsarel added. “She then immediately opened my cage and I was able to help Moose take out the rest.”

My junior nodded. “Dalsarel moved the guards somewhere they wouldn’t likely be found, and when she came back we locked ourselves in so we could look for clues. We hadn’t had a lot of time before you all arrived.”

“Alright, good work you three,” I praised. “The last question I have before we start taking every scrap of paper here is this: do you know where Abara is now?”

“No,” Ferrisdae admitted. “After swapping out the Thornguard, he disappeared. We’ve been keeping an eye out, but he hasn’t returned.”

“Then we don’t know how much time we have,” I said, clapping my hands. “Justisius, sorry for just taking over, but I think it’s prudent to get as much out of the dungeon as we can.”

“I’m with you, Badger,” he replied amicably.

“Thanks. Then please go and talk to the sultan and try to get ahead of this,” I requested, and he nodded. “I’ll help the girls take all these documents. Ferrisdae, Dalsarel, if either of you see anything urgent, call it out, but otherwise just skim. Cojisto, Moose, try to figure out if you can move that crystal or not. If we can disrupt the dungeon, Abara won’t have any place to return to. We’re going to treat this like a time sensitive mission. Any questions?”

Nobody had any, so they all quickly got to work. There was a lot of enemy intelligence and resources here, and we needed to get it somewhere safe as soon as possible.