Bright white light assaulted her eyes. It shone everywhere, a painful glow unlike any light she’d ever experienced before. Stella cried out and threw her arm over her eyes, backing into the cave.

Her hand caught, captured by a friendly, warm hand. It squeezed once.

Stella shook her head and backed up. “It’s too bright! It hurts!”

“It’s alright, it’s alright,” Aster placated her. “It’s just the sun.”

“The sun?” Stella asked.

“It’s… the surface’s equivalent of your blue crystals. A light source that lives in the sky,” Aster explained.

“My crystals don’t live in the sky,” Stella pointed out. Slowly, she peeled her arm away from her eyes and squinted out at the world.

Land. Land, in every direction. Great rounded heaps of it, piled higher than she could have imagined. Strange green things everywhere, growing out of every surface. Big ones, small ones, pretty ones and snarling ugly ones, even flat ones that crawled over familiar stone. No walls. No ceiling except for a blue void traced with white, so far away as to be nonexistent. And in the center of that void—

Aster covered her eyes. “Don’t look at the sun. It’s not good for you.”

“You said it was alright,” Stella pointed out, but she turned away from the sky. Releasing his hand, she grabbed at the hand over her eyes with both hands and heaved it away from her. There’s so much to see. I want to see! So much…

“Whoa. There’s so much… color,” Daiyo grumbled, his low voice reverberating over the big land lumps.

Like giant, soft stalagmites, Stella thought, staring at them again. But round, and all piled up on top of one another. And covered in those green stick things.

Aster glanced at him. “You know, monsters that leave the dungeon are supposed to be terminated on the spot.”

“Don’t suppose you can make an exception?” he asked.

If he leaves—didn’t he say? Stella ran over to Daiyo and planted both hands on his leg, shoving him back toward the dungeon. “Go! Go!”

“Eh? What’s got our mistress all worked up?” Daiyo asked, tilting his head. He towered over her, not so much as shifting from her strongest push.

“If you leave the dungeon and die, you die forever. You said!” Stella insisted, continuing to push.

Daiyo gave, suddenly. Stella kept pushing, backing him up to the dungeon, then inside. Only when he was inside did she sigh and wipe her brow, relieved. I don’t want Diayo to die forever. I can bring Momma back, if I find more mana, but if Daiyo leaves the dungeon, then—!

Aster chuckled, looking at Daiyo. “You said so yourself.”

Daiyo shook his head. “Suppose I did. I’ll watch from here, then.”

“That’s a better idea,” Aster agreed.

Stella gasped. “I said I wasn’t going outside!” She turned and ran for the dungeon.

Aster reached out and caught her arm. “It’s too late now. Why not look around while you’re out here?”

Stella hesitated. It’s so pretty out here. And there’s no humans around. It’s basically a big, weird, empty dungeon. “There aren’t any humans?”

Aster did the smile he always did when he got his way. Stella scowled at him, annoyed, but he didn’t seem to notice. He shook his head. “There are no humans. Not today. No one’s going to come toward the dungeon right now, because everyone thinks the dungeon is broken. It’s a perfect chance for you to get outside and look around.”

Stella glanced at the dungeon, then back toward the outside world. She wobbled, caught between the two.

“You know, it isn’t every day that it’s this empty out here. Usually there’s all sorts of people running around here. It’s a rare chance,” Aster continued, still smiling that smile, as if he’d already won.

Stella ran over and punched his leg. “Dummy.”

“Ow! What?” Aster asked.

She pouted up at him. “I’ll stay outside, but only for a little bit.”

“A little bit is enough. What do you want to see?” Aster asked.

She turned back toward the green things and pointed. “What are those?”

“Those? Trees. Come on, there’s lots more of them to see,” Aster said, a smug smile on his face.

“That one too? And that one?” she confirmed, pointing around.

Aster nodded. “Yep. Actually, that one’s a pine tree, and that one’s an oak.”

“Different kinds of trees, like different kinds of monsters,” Stella mused. She walked up to the pine tree, peering at its needles. She nodded. “This one does needle attacks!”

Aster chuckled. “Actually, trees don’t generally attack. Touch the needles. They won’t hurt you.”

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Stella frowned. She reached out and delicately prodded the pine needle. It bent under her finger, not stiff at all. Frowning deeper, she gently tapped its sharp end. The needle gave, slightly sharp but not sharp enough to break her skin.

It really isn’t attacking. Is Aster right?

She walked over to the oak tree and slapped its barrel-like trunk. Branches spread out in all directions, some barely as tall as her head, some stretching high, high above. “This one’s tough and fat. It must be specialized in defense.”

“Trees don’t really specialize in defense, either,” Aster said.

Stella frowned. “Then what do they do?”

“Er… mostly sit there and create shade. Sometimes people cut them down and burn them, or use them to build houses,” Aster explained.

“Why would you use trees for houses when you can use stone?” Stella asked.

“Not everyone has stone magic like you and Daiyo,” Aster said, shaking his head.

Stella considered for a moment. “Well, they should.”

Aster looked around, then nodded. “What do you think, Stella? How’s the outside world?”

“It’s nice,” Stella said.

A force suddenly struck her from behind. Her hair and her dress flew forward, and she staggered forward a step. Startled, Stella yelped and ran to Aster’s side, grabbing onto his pants. “Help!”

“Stella, that’s the wind,” Aster chuckled.

“Where are they?” Stella asked, concerned. The invisible force pushed her forward, then backward. She held on tight to Aster’s leg. It’s going to throw me into that big blue empty space, and I’ll die!

“Huh?” Aster asked.

“The person attacking us,” Stella grumbled.

“Stella, it’s wind,” Aster said, confused. “Moving air.”

“I know what a wind attack is. Who’s doing it? Who’s throwing wind at us?” Stella demanded.

Aster laughed. He shook his head. “Stella…”

“What?”

Stifling his laughter, he patted her on the head. “Stella, no. This is just ordinary wind. It happens sometimes. No one’s attacking anyone, it’s just a thing that happens on the surface.”

Stella pressed her lips together. On the surface, you can get wind-attacked at any time, and that’s normal? Everyone is okay with that? “I don’t like it.”

“You don’t like wind?” Aster asked.

Stella shook her head. “What other kinds of attacks happen out here? Fire? Water?”

“Fire… isn’t common. Water…” Aster chuckled. “Well, rain is pretty common.”

“Rain?”

“That’s when water falls from the sky,” Aster said.

Stella propped her chin on her hand, lips pursed. “The outside world is far more dangerous than my dungeon.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. Rain and wind don’t usually hurt anyone, but the monsters in your dungeon do,” Aster protested gently.

“That’s their fault for going inside,” Stella replied, crossing her arms.

He walked to her side and sat down. “I’ll have to take you to town one day, but for now, we’ll stay near the dungeon.”

“No humans,” Stella grumbled.

“I know, but what if they aren’t in your dungeon?” Aster asked, tilting his head.

Stella furrowed her brows. “Why would I go seek out humans? All they do is kill and hurt.”

“That’s not true. What about me?” Aster asked.

Stella harrumphed. She knelt to examine the floor, patting the ground. It’s all loose and soft. Not stone. What is it?

“That’s dirt,” Aster said.

“Dirt.” Stella grabbed a handful and squeezed it, then dropped it. She looked at Aster. “You kill too.”

Aster glanced down. “I’m sorry about that. Once you get more mana, you can respawn the rat.”

“But Daiyo… and the other monsters also kill. Does that make it okay?” Stella asked, tilting her head.

“Uh… well, killing… even humans don’t consider it okay,” Aster said.

“Then why do you kill monsters?” Stella asked, tilting her head.

Aster licked his lips. “Because they’ll kill us if we don’t.”

“What if I told them not to? Would humans still kill them?” Stella asked. She plopped down beside him and slapped her hands in the dirt, squishing the topsoil between her fingers.

“I… it would take some time, I think. People—that is, humans—are so used to monsters attacking them on sight that they—we… well, if you hesitate in a dungeon, you die. And humans don’t respawn,” Aster explained. “Not like monsters do.”

He frowned at himself. What on earth am I doing? Don’t monsters kill humans all day, every day? But here I am apologizing for humans killing monsters…

No, I understand. From Stella’s perspective, after all, humans are the ones intruding and killing monsters all day, every day. Since it’s the natural order of things for humans to enter dungeons, I never thought of it that way. But naturally, from a dungeon’s perspective, it’s the humans who are monsters. Endlessly swarming in, overrunning the dungeon, stealing their property.

I wonder… if there’s a way to coexist without killing one another.

“How do humans respawn?” Stella asked.

Aster laughed. “I wish I knew. There’s all kinds of theories about the afterlife, and every religion has its own take, but no one knows for sure.”

“Religion?”

“Let’s… cover that later,” Aster said. I’m not prepared for that conversation yet.

“Mmm,” Stella muttered.

Aster lifted a leaf and held it out to her. She took it, examining it closely. Something had carved a hole out of its center, and little black blotches spotted its underside. She pointed. “What are those? What’s that hole?”

Aster smiled. “If you went to town, you could ask someone.”

“I can ask you,” Stella countered.

“But I don’t know,” Aster replied, shrugging.

Stella scowled.

“Humans know a great deal more about this world than you do. If you never leave your dungeon, you’ll be a frog in a well,” Aster warned.

“I don’t like frogs,” Stella muttered. She dropped the leaf. “Or humans.”

“I know, I know,” Aster said, sighing.

“I just want to keep everyone safe. Is that so hard?” Stella complained.

Pushing to his feet, Aster stretched. “It’s hard for everyone.”

Stella jumped up, patting off her white dress. Her dirt-caked hands stained the dress as she batted the leaves off it. She headed back toward her dungeon. “I’ll figure it out.”

“I’m sure you will. And I’ll help you,” Aster promised. It’s going to be slow, but we’ll figure it out. What Stella wants to do, and how to help her do it as best as she can, we’ll figure it out together.

Daiyo leaned forward from the cave. “Are we done? Are you sure? We couldn’t stay just a little longer? What about town? I could go to town. I wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

Aster looked at the hulking stone giant and shook his head. “I don’t think you’ll be going to town for a while.”

“I can pretend to be a rock. There’s rocks lying around on the surface world, right?” Daiyo said.

For a moment, Aster imagined Daiyo sneaking through town as a rock. A random boulder laid by the tavern, Daiyo’s flat face angled to watch the villagers. The villagers wandered into the tavern, and the boulder suddenly rose and darted across the road to sit by the market. In his mind’s eye, one of the villagers left the tavern and did a double-take at the place where the boulder had been, then its new resting place. Unaware of the villager behind him, Daiyo jumped to his feet to move on to his next hiding spot. The villager screamed, Daiyo screamed, adventurers ran out of the tavern, magic flew wildly, swords hissed out of sheathes…

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Aster said.

“What if I look more human instead? I’m already pretty human, right? But…” Daiyo held out his hands. “What if I had fingers?”

“There’s a lot more to fix than your fingers,” Aster said, giving Daiyo a skeptical scan up and down. He has four limbs and a head, but it’s a long way from passing as human.

“Like what? I can fix it. I sculpted myself to look like this in the first place,” Daiyo said.

Aster opened his mouth, then closed it. “You know what? I’ll get you a mirror.”