Zoe sat with the cats, tossing their toys around the home while she waited for Emma to come home. The cats chased the rocks around for a bit, but they both seemed to get bored of them eventually. Oliver hopped back onto Zoe’s bed, while Fennel sat and stared at Zoe, trying to talk about something that seemed incredibly important.
Probably food, she imagined. ‘Where’s my food!’ or maybe ‘Where’s my mom!’, Zoe thought. It would be nice to understand what the cats were actually saying, but then that raised the question of if they were actually saying anything at all.
What was speech? What were words? Could the cats be capable of actually understanding them and using them to try and communicate, even if Zoe found some way to magically translate their meows? Or would their meows just translate to vague emotions of hunger or loneliness, which Zoe was already more than capable of feeling through her Vampyric Empathy.
“Yes, Fennel.” Zoe said as Fennel nudged his head into Zoe’s hand as she pet him. “Emma’s off at work, or something. I dunno. Maybe she’s just at Joe’s. She’ll be back soon, though. Probably. Y’all aren’t starving so she hasn’t been gone for very long. You’ll live.”
“Ah!” Zoe said several minutes later when she noticed Emma pop into the kitchen. “She’s home now, look at that.”
“Zoe?” Emma called out from the kitchen. “Is that you?"
“Yeah!” Zoe called back.
Fennel jumped up from next to Zoe and ran over to the kitchen when he heard Emma’s voice, his little claws tapping on the rather scratched wooden floors.
“Hello baby!” Emma said as Fennel entered the kitchen. “Have you been a good boy? Yes you have, you’re the bestest little boy aren’t you? What a cutie patootie.”
Zoe teleported to the kitchen, seeing Fennel laying on the ground staring at the ceiling at Emma’s feet. “Where were you?"
“Just had some errands to do. You were gone longer than I expected. Didn’t even get to try my soup.” Emma pouted.
“Was it good?" Zoe asked.
Emma summoned a bowl of soup and slammed it down on the table, splashing some bits of the clear broth out of the wooden bowl. “Taste it yourself.”
Zoe picked up the bowl and sipped some of the broth. It was much better than when Emma had her taste it initially. The bland, watery broth was packed full of flavour with earthy undertones and a rich mouthfeel that clung to the roof of her mouth.
“Mm, that’s much better.” Zoe said.
“Yeah.” Emma spat out. “It is. I was really proud of it, and then you didn’t even come home.” She shook her head.
“Okay, I’m sorry. Things got a little out of hand.” Zoe said.
Emma laughed and gestured at the bowl of soup Zoe was sipping from.. “I’m not really upset. I didn’t expect you back anyway.”
“You saved this just for me?" Zoe said in the whiniest voice she could manage, pretending to wipe a tear from her eye.
“I did, for the sad, pathetic you.” Emma laughed.
“Hey!” Zoe shot back.
“So how’d it go? Where’d you go, actually? I thought you were still in your cave back there but I checked in on you and you were gone.” Emma asked.
“Ah. Yeah I forgot to say goodbye, I guess.” Zoe grimaced. “Sorry.”
“No it’s fine. But where’d you end up this time?" Emma asked.
“Well, I’ve got quite the story for you, actually.” Zoe said, and shared everything that had happened in the Springs of Gir.
“So you want to turn the moon into a dungeon?” Emma raised an eyebrow.
“Not all of it. But after seeing the springs like that, it’s got me wondering what dungeons are, and how they’re formed. And my best guess is that they form around intense mana. Either a lot of mana, or mana with a powerful, specific purpose.
“So enchanting the frost rock with frost and just letting it sit somewhere for a while might make a dungeon, maybe? Or maybe it doesn’t, but if it doesn’t then that’s still a result, you know? And I can’t think of anywhere else that would be safe to do that.
“The moon seems like a good bet because nothing lives on the moon, from what we saw. So if some small part of the moon gets really cold then nobody’s gonna be put out by it. And the cold will never reach Abyllan cause there’s not really any matter for the heat to travel through.
“But then how do thermal dynamics even work here with magic anyway? Would the cold make it here because the mana wouldn’t be impeded? I dunno. Probably not. It’s really far away. Anyway, I can’t think of anywhere better to just try it out, and then we’ll know for sure if it works or not? And if it does, then we could make our own dungeons! That would be so cool.” Zoe rambled.
“It would be pretty cool to make our own dungeons. You think we could make Foizo a dungeon, get the system to help us keep the walls and buildings protected and maintained?” Emma asked.
“Maybe? Lets not get ahead of ourselves, though. We don’t even know if it’ll make a dungeon at all.” Zoe said.
“No, maybe you just destroy the moon and invoke the wrath of the moon gods, instead.” Emma said.
“Yeah, exactly. What’s the worst that could happen?" Zoe laughed.
“That. That is.” Emma said.
“Yeah okay but the moon’s not gonna be destroyed just because a small part of it gets a little bit colder.” Zoe said.
“From what you’ve said, it seems like it’ll get a lot colder, though.” Emma said.
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“Yeah, but the moon’s already pretty cold cause of the whole vacuum of space thing so it’ll be fine if it gets colder. Probably. And it’s not like this is going to freeze the entire moon, that would be ridiculous.” Zoe laughed.
“You could try digging a big hole somewhere nobody lives here instead. Probably better than annoying whatever moon god lives in the centre of the moon.” Emma suggested.
“I thought about that, but what if it spreads farther than I expect it to? It got really cold, really fast. I could barely stop it here at the start, if I leave it for an hour I’m not sure how much damage it’ll do to its surroundings.” Zoe explained.
“Then you probably shouldn’t be doing it at all?" Emma suggested. ”Like it would be super cool to make dungeons but if you think the only way to do it safely is to put the entire moon at risk, maybe you’re not ready to try it yet?"
“Okay, that’s a fair point. But like I said it wouldn’t be the whole moon, it would just be a small part of it.” Zoe said.
“Then you can do it here and just affect a small part of this much, much larger planet instead.” Emma said.
“But what if it spreads more than I can handle?" Zoe asked.
“Then don’t do it yet. Or I dunno, ask Diana if she can help. Maybe the king would be interested in some experiments with it.” Emma said.
“They probably have these kinds of things already so I doubt they’d be interested.” Zoe said.
“Then why do you think it’s going to make a dungeon? If it could, then they’d already be making dungeons for themselves with the ones they already have.” Emma said.
“Okay, but how do you know they aren’t already making dungeons with the ones they have? You know the bigger cities have dungeons under them for their richer nobles. The excuse goes that the cities were built over these dungeons, but so many of them, so close together? What if they’re lying, and the dungeons were made to keep the nobles in power?” Zoe asked.
Emma’s eyebrow rose. “That’s an interesting point, actually. But if that’s true, then that’s all the more reason to do it here, beneath Foizo. You got the rock from this mountain, right? Put it back, see what happens in a few years. If we can make dungeons, then Foizo would benefit a lot from having another one nearby, especially if it’s a lower level one so people can actually get some levels off of it on their own when they’re younger.”
“But it could be dangerous.” Zoe said.
“Then you shouldn’t do it. Look, I trust you. And I think that you’re more than capable of handling yourself in many situations. But you wouldn’t even let me touch the dang thing because of how cold it was. If you think it’s that dangerous, then maybe you should try and think of another use for it that isn’t so dangerous.” Emma said.
Zoe pouted. “You’re right. But I do still want to try if I can find a way that feels safe enough. The moon seems like the best bet.”
“It probably is.” Emma said.
“Then you’ll give me permission to go try and make a dungeon on the moon?” Zoe asked.
“Absolutely not.” Emma said.
“Eugh. That’s so annoying.” Zoe said.
“Talk with Diana. Maybe the kingdom is hiding their ability to make dungeons from us, but if you show an interest in it, maybe you’ll get to be a part of that clique.” Emma said.
“Diana is so annoying, though. She always wants to fight me.” Zoe moaned.
“Ask Joe, maybe he can bring it up with the leadership at their next meeting.” Emma suggested.
“That’s a much better idea. I think I’ll go do that. Thanks.” Zoe said.
“Anytime. Joe’s probably at his inn now, if you wanted to see him.” Emma said.
“Yeah I will. Thanks.” Zoe said.
Emma nodded as Zoe teleported outside to the ever growing garden just outside their home. Zoe had helped at first with getting some of the larger plants growing — some vines that stretched up through the fruit trees that were growing. The fruit trees themselves which cast a pleasant shade over the garden and bore a variety of colourful fruits from their branches.
But after the initial planting, Zoe hadn’t needed to help out, not with her magic anyway. The two had enjoyed getting their hands dirty, digging through the dirt and keeping everything alive with their own effort. Emma did most of it, Zoe had to admit.
Gardening was something that Zoe enjoyed so much back home, but there were so many other things to get excited about here. It was fun — she didn’t think she’d ever stop enjoying planting seeds and watching as the plants poked out of the dirt and created their beautiful fruits. There was something so satisfying about the process.
A few tiny seeds, or some leftover cloves of garlic or even some bits of potatoes they would have tossed aside could become something so much more. So beautiful and tasty, with just a little time and effort.
But she couldn’t bring the garden with her, and coming back every day to check on it just felt like a chore more than anything else. Maybe one day she’d get her own little pocket dimension where she could start her own garden, a storage skill that she could enter herself. Then she could have a portable enchanting room, too. She hadn’t heard of anything like that before, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be possible, either.
Zoe walked down the trodden dirt path through the forest towards Foizo proper — expansion of the city had still largely avoided encroaching on Zoe’s little private space, not that she minded it much anyway. With a garden and windows the very idea of keeping it a secret had long since been blown aside. But she appreciated the gesture.
The dirt path connected up to the side of a small road on the outskirts of Foizo, and Zoe followed it down through the buildings towards Joe’s inn. The sun was high in the sky, beginning to fall towards the horizon and plenty of people were out wandering around with their children or pets. Some hauling large carts behind them, and others covered in storage items.
Foizo was one of the oddest cities Zoe had seen, though she hadn’t seen too many, she’d realized. The level ranges she saw were incredible, thanks to Flester’s Might being an excellent resource for the population. People were rather comfortable in town — there was an undercurrent of anxiety as there always tended to be, but for the most part people were happy and felt safe.
The comfort was perhaps in part thanks to the abundance of high level people who lived in Foizo, but it meant that there weren’t all that many people around level one hundred anymore, which was curious. Wandering through the streets, most of the people Zoe saw were either well under level one hundred, or well over level one hundred.
Which made sense, she thought. Anybody who wanted to be a higher level wouldn’t stay in Foizo — they’d be in the town outside of Flester’s Might. Inkley, she wondered? The name had something to do with Ink, but she couldn’t quite remember.
Whatever the name was, anybody who enjoyed accumulating levels and power would be over there, not in Foizo. Which left a natural dearth of medium levelled individuals in Foizo. You had the lower level folk who were content with their slower lives, seamstresses and restaurateurs who were satisfied with what they had. But then you also had the much higher level folk reaching over two hundred with relative frequency who had either done everything they wanted in Flester’s Might, or didn’t need the help Inkley provided them and enjoyed the comfort of the larger city.
Of course there was the odd person around level one hundred, but they were far rarer than people at fifty, or even at two hundred. A curious quirk of Foizo, she supposed. Though not as curious as the abundance of fire throughout the city, she’d realized as she wandered through.
Fire magic was as commonplace as cleaning magic it seemed. Every shop or building had magical torches burning on the front for light, or flames running along the corners of their ceilings inside to cast light throughout the business.
In time, would Foizo be known for their displays of fire, as Flester was known for their magic or Korna for their clothes? Or would access to Flester’s Might change the kingdom as a whole, rather than be localized just to Foizo?
Zoe wasn’t sure, but she found herself excited to see how things would continue to change as the years passed.