Aperio raised a brow at the mother and daughter pair in front of her. Seeing the golden-furred form of Neria next to her mother was odd. They looked awfully similar, with the only real difference now being the coloration of their fur. Both had a slightly crooked ear, but only Moria had a scar running through her face.

"So you have talked it out?" she asked as moved herself behind Caethya, sat herself down and pulled her love into her lap.

Moria rubbed the bridge of her nose in reply. "We talked about it," she said. "There is much more to discuss, however." She let out a sigh. "Neria also has some questions for you."

"Oh? And what would those be?"

The Beastkin looked at her, hesitating for a moment before she balled her hands into fists and took a step forwards. "Why would you curse my mother with such a thing?"

Aperio narrowed her eyes at Neria, the air surrounding them growing a little bit colder. There was a clarity in her mind that she had not truly known before, a surety that had no equal. Her next words were the truth, and the world itself knew. "It is in her power to remove it. That she chose to keep it should tell you all you need to know.

"Is that all you wanted to do?" Aperio asked, sitting a little straighter and locking eyes with the Beastkin. "Complain to me that I wanted my friend to remember her lives?" The All-Mother scoffed and shook her head. "I respect the will of others." Unlike some.

"Do you really?" Neria asked, taking a step towards Aperio and Caethya.

Her love shifted slightly in her lap, her aura flaring slightly at the Beastkin's approach. "Choose your next words carefully," Caethya said. "I am not some pawn you or anyone else gets to use. If I did not like what she did, I would not be here."

Aperio held her love a little tighter at the words and glared at Neria, not bothering to hide her displeasure. If the implied accusation had not come from the daughter of her surrogate mother, Aperio did not know what she would have done. As it stood, however, Neria got to enjoy a lesser reaction because the All-Mother still valued what was left of her friendship with Moria.

The Beastkin did not reply, simply stepping back behind her mother who, in turn, shook her head. "I told you you were wrong about her. Believing your mother would do you good, sometimes."

"I saw what she did to Chellien, how she turned him into that marble thing," Neria hissed. "How is that good or benevolent?"

"He asked me to do that," Aperio replied, the note of truth still ringing in her mind. "He wished to protect his people. Protect you." She shook her head slightly, a touch of her magic pushing away the strands of hair that fell in front of her eyes. "Moria was there to witness it all, why don't you ask her?" Did they even talk?

"I saw what happened that day, and my mother was most assuredly not there," Neria replied with a smug smile, as if she had somehow figured out a grand scheme. "There were three men that got infused with that black mist you made."

"I was there in disguise," Moria said, lowering her gaze to the floor. "The one whose place I took had perished in an earlier fight. We had no time to perform the ritual for me to take his place, so we did what we thought best at the time."

Whatever the two Beastkin had discussed while Aperio and Caethya had waited had obviously not been enough. Not surprising, the All-Mother thought to herself as she nudged her love to stand up before taking her hand. "As you clearly have more to discuss, we will go pay the [Ancestral Guard] a visit while you do so. Once you have sorted...whatever this is out, Moria can tell me and I will fetch the two of you."

As her mana rose up to do her bidding, Aperio set her eyes directly on Neria. "I hope you direct your anger more appropriately next time." Then without waiting for a reply the All-Mother and her disciple vanished, only to reappear in front of the headquarters of the [Ancestral Guard]. It was time to weed out the ones that did not wish to see their people cast into war.

Her first idea for that problem had been the same fake System notification trick she had used on the freed slaves, but announcing her involvement in this matter probably needed to happen without the use of a proxy. The System did not truly seem to be the best option at the moment.

"You don't know why she is so against you either, right?" Caethya asked, looking up at the All-Mother. "It seems… odd, to say the least."

"I do not, no," Aperio replied as she opened the metal gate that barred their way with a light kick. "She was not like that when I first met her. But," she continued after a moment's hesitation, "finding out your own mother has lived countless lives with countless families before you is probably not something anyone is prepared to hear." I certainly wouldn't be.

"I guess," Caethya mumbled in reply. "It's still a little weird, though."

"Most definitely," Aperio agreed. In the end, it was up to Neria. Whatever the Beastkin chose, hating her or not, the All-Mother would live with it. "If she needs to hate me to cope with it, then I shall bear with it."

Her love frowned at the words but remained silent for a moment, likely having spotted the members of the [Ancestral Guard] that were currently making their way towards them. Aperio doubted they would try too much, but she still let a bit of her mana flow around Caethya, forming an invisible barrier against potential attacks. If they somehow managed to hurt her love, Aperio could not guarantee the safety of anyone responsible.

"Maybe they did something to her?" Caethya asked, nodding towards the approaching guards. "It would fit."

The All-Mother furrowed her brows at the question and let her aura unfold itself just a little more. Inspecting someone's Soul had become a lot easier than she had ever thought it would, but perhaps that was to be expected. She had quite literally made them, after all.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"There is nothing wrong with her Soul," she replied after a moment. "But that does not mean they did not convince her through more… conventional means."

Any further conversation about the topic was cut short as the members of the [Ancestral Guard] had come into actual hearing range by now. The All-Mother simply gave them a little wave and a smile. If they expected her to be scared of a few armed mortals, they were severely mistaken. Even during her time as a slave, her fear of being beaten or stabbed by people like them had eventually disappeared, and now they would not even be able to cut her dress.

"Greetings," Aperio said, letting just a bit more of her mana seep into her voice. "I would like to file a complaint." The guards slowed at the sound of her voice and two of the three placed their hands on the hilts of their weapons. "Sending glorified bandits to extort the citizens of this city is wrong, would you not agree?

"Are you not supposed to protect them?" she asked, taking a step towards them. "Or are the rumours correct, and you truly do plan to start a war between the tribes?"

Aperio could see the Beastkin tense at her words — could feel the hearts beating just a little faster. Her smile widened a little, showing just the tiniest amount of teeth. It would seem like she found a bit of the chaff that needed to be cleared.

Confirmation of her assessment came in the form of a bolt of lightning that lazily — to the All-Mother's eyes, at least — snaked its way through the air. Aperio tilted her head at the rather crude nature of the magic, a tiny voice in the back of her mind telling her that the mana used to make that spell would scream in anger if it could. A flick of her wrist caused the lightning to simply snap down and hit the ground.

"How rude," she said, but did not retaliate. Aperio could feel Caethya's mana in the ground beneath the guards’ feet and a quick mental query confirmed that her love had it handled. "You did not even try to pretend that I was wrong."

With a surge of Caethya's mana, the ground beneath the guards turned into molten rock that consumed them a lot faster than normal magma should. But then, it was decidedly not normal, as her love had made it and was still pouring mana into it. Also not as crude as that lightning…

Pushing deeper into the temple of the [Ancestral Guard] did not pose much of an issue, as every guard they found attacked them on sight, most of them not even waiting for her to speak. After the third group, Aperio stopped and simply let her aura feed her all the information about the building she could need. Something was very wrong, and she would figure out what that was.

"Their Souls are fine, right?" Caethya asked as she poked at one of the corpses she had just made. "Can't find anything wrong with their body either."

"They are," the All-Mother replied as she looked at the tiny marbles before they disappeared into her Void. "But there is something that is trying to interact with them. It seems to be coming from everywhere, but the problem is that the building has no runes on it, nor any mana of its own."

Her love raised a brow at her words. "You are telling me there is magic you cannot see?"

"No," Aperio replied, sharing what she saw with Caethya. "What I cannot figure out is where it is coming from. It just… is."

"Can you remove it?"

"Of course, but that would also make it very hard to find the one responsible." Or ones. She doubted this was the work of one person; magic like this would need a ritual or a deity of some kind. Especially if she considered that the magic that hung in the air was very selective in choosing who it wanted to interact with. Caethya and herself were of no interest to the invisible magical fog, and so were normal Beastkin. It only went after members of the [Ancestral Guard]. Almost like that dungeon core mist that tried to take me when I came back…

A thought surfaced in the All-Mother's mind that caused her to twist reality apart, bringing herself and Caethya into the room that held the remnants of Chellien's Soul. It was the only thing she could think of that would have the power to produce something like this and only target the members of the guard.

Much to her dismay, she was correct.

Above the pedestal that housed the black marble she found a crystal she was by now all too familiar with by. The only difference this one had to the ones she found in the dungeons was that the [Keeper of Voices] was seemingly inside of it. Is he trying to become a dungeon?

"Is that a dungeon core?" Caethya asked, stepping closer to Aperio. "With a person inside?"

"Yes," the All-Mother replied. A small flex of her mental muscles caused her own mana to subsume the fog that had spread throughout the building and, just as she had hoped, the crystal cracked slightly. So the fog is not connected to the core, but is part of the core itself?

It would explain why nothing lead back to it, almost like the Dominion of a God. There was no connection needed; it was simply part of them. Anything inside could be bent to the owner’s whim because it was essentially just another part of them. Just like everything technically belongs to me…

"I don't think Moria will have more time to talk about her familial issues today," Aperio said as she stepped closer to the pedestal. "This is… wrong."

A wave of sadness spread through her as she looked at the marble and the black fog that rolled inside. Somehow, she knew that it was hurt despite also knowing that it was neither alive nor contained anything more than the magical might of Chellien.

Another few steps brought her directly in front of it and Aperio slowly extended her arm. As soon as her hand touched the orb, the black fog inside calmed, no longer flowing around like the ocean during a storm. Perhaps I was wrong back then? Aperio thought to herself as she lifted the marble closer to her face. Maybe he is still in there?

Whatever the truth was, the mortals would no longer get to keep the remains of Chellien with them. They had been left with his people so that they might protect themselves with it, not so that a select few could turn themselves into an abomination and simply control the rest. But how did I not notice this being made?

A ritual like this should have been dramatic enough to draw her attention, should it not? Creating a dungeon core could not be easy, or something that just happens. Aperio shook her head, appearing by Caethya's side again with the black marble still in her hand. "Have you seen something like this before?"

"No," Caethya mumbled, her eyes scanning the entire chamber. "But this room does look a lot like the ones actual dungeon cores normally reside in. They planned this for a long time."

"I see," Aperio said. This time, she did not bother to ask for Moria's or Neria's permission to teleport them; what they had found warranted their presence and did not allow for wasted time.

"I think their ambitions were grander than you thought," the All-Mother said as both Moria and Neria appeared next to her.