Sapana flowed against the current, the dark freezing current with occasional shards of ice coming out of the dark like the spears of an assassin. The naiad kept out of the rush as much as possible, sticking to the eddies near the banks or coming up behind boulders to avoid becoming a victim of winter. It was not the most direct route down the hidden waterways, through the maze and down into the living quarters. A quick stop by the fire still going in Szefs room to chase away the chill that worked down to the bone, naiads were creatures of water, but even they had their limits. Gina was waiting for the briefing, and it was better than she could have hoped. It was still very early in the morning, but the news was too good to wait. A quick announcement to each of the minions and once again the family was gathered on the new desk.
"OK! Congratulations to all of you! Most of the intruders will be leaving tomorrow!" Pause for cheering. "All that will be left is six of them, I feel like that is a number we can deal with! We are not safe yet though, the intruders will be getting reinforcements soon, could be as soon as twenty one days." Pause for looks of worry. "This won't be a problem though, we will just have to come up with a plan before then, a way to defend ourselves before then. I want you all to work on new ideas, ways to get rid of the intruders that are here, a way to protect us from intruders down the road."
"Did you want us to end them mum?'
"A knife in the dark will take care of any problems."
"I wouldn't mind killing some murders."
"Nothing yet, I just want ideas, we will start talking about taking action after we see them actually leave. Kawn, if you could fly overhead and make sure they actually leave, check about noon tomorrow."
"Of course, any small way I can be of service is an honor."
"Alright, that's it."
As they left something bothered Gina, that was when shale had mentioned Murder. She never thought about herself as a murderer, but that is how dungeons grow isn't it? They absorb the lives of their victims or something... she would have to ask Uden whenever she could find some time without unwanted ears listening in. Speaking of ears listening in, Gina couldn't help but hear Sapana describing the wintery night to Pappi. She kept listening, completely captivated by the description of the world outside. She had vague memories from decades ago, of scraggly trees pushing out of the mountains, scrubs of grass fighting to survive among the rocks on the well traveled slope. But what Sapana was describing was a level of beauty she couldn't even begin to understand. Was outside always like that? What about the seasons, it wasn't always cold, there wasn't always teeth of ice lining the mouth of the cave... What was the world like?
In that moment, for the first time she felt real regret over what her life had been, and that she had been reborn a dungeon. What if the afterlife had allowed her to travel free as a spirit on the wind, or if she had pleased the great gleam, maybe she would have joined it as an ever present being that could experience the whole world. She withdrew in a shattered sense of self doubt, wondering if maybe being shattered and moving on would be better. But just as she was spiraling into a black hole of shadows, voices broke through.
"This one didn't know what was happening, I tried to revert the chest back into energy, but it just wouldn't go, finally it finishes disappearing, this one was about to disappear oneself, so this one tries some healing and it flared, opposite of the revert, it was like five minds were working at once, it was madness! Like all of reality was trying to unravel it's secrets all at once, it became so clear how the armor had once been parts of a living being and instinctively saw it's past, present and future. So when this one reverted the armor it flared even stronger than the heal and BAM, armor stew!
Gina watched them sharing the joys of working together and realized this was because of her, there was beauty here and she was a part of it. They knew that death could hit at any moment, but that was life for anyone, it made them live brighter and more deeply to fight for what they believed in. She didn't want this to end, she would make this her joy, her world, if there was a way to bring the wonder of the outside world here, then this would be a perfect life, but there was no reason to wish for what was out of reach.
Wait a minute! SHE WAS GINA: Dungeon Boss! The outdoors may be out of reach, the world may have passed her by, but she already decided this was her life, she was going to be the best she could for her family and this was how she was going to do it! She was going to build the wonders of the world in the dungeon and let the world come to her! Then she could devour everyone and take their gold. Maybe that last sentiment was the dungeon in her speaking, she would have to work out the logistics of energy and finances, but she could do that too, she had a desk. And file cabinets.
She couldn't wait to explore her options, she had a the motivation and now she had a theme, Something Amazing. Granted it wasn't the clearest direction, that's what the desk was for, to turn directions into actions.
For the first time in a long time she opened her books. Summons were the same, everything grayed out except the Wee Folk and some animals with the addition of the Portabique, that was interesting. She pulled out the heavy wood bound Master Catalogue with it's copper clasp. It was still sadly very basic, but there was a few new options since she had looked at it last, most of it household goods, clothing, basic armor. She tried to think of what it could have been that gave her more options since she had built the trap that killed the first thieves. She narrowed it down to five options.
She had a much larger pool of energy to draw on from expanding the amount of space from building the maze.
She had added a bunch of things in to the dungeon and summoned a junk room full of things Faul had wished for.
She had summoned more minions, five more Wisps and five more Sylph.
The minions had made small experience gains from playing in the dungeon and killing the bandits.
She had gained some experience from absorbing energy from the living and the dead.
This would take some experimenting. She knew how to make machines, gearworks, armor, weapons and anything a smith could make, but she was at a loss on how to make natural elements for her new world. The key would be to unlock as many new Catalogue items as possible. She created a new book Agenda and added a page called 'Unlock', this would be her first goal, to fill out this page. There was an area for summons and objects, each area had lines for process, strategy and notes. It would be a bad idea to use up energy right now, without knowing what their plans would be for the day, but there was plenty of information to start with.
Creatures can be summoned whenever they are unlocked. They can be unlocked by absorbing them alive or if they die within her dungeon, the lizard person and the Langdens were an exception for some reason. But the portabique was a puzzle, why was it on the list when it wasn't absorbed but the Langden and the lizard person weren't on the list but they were absorbed.
Item summoning was more straight forward. It became unlocked when she absorbed or created it, there was some default items but no idea how to unlock them. Everything Faul had asked for she had been able to create, that was something. She had no idea how to make the food before he had asked for it, but when he asked for it she was able to make it and now it was in the Master Catalogue. Maybe that was the key to it all! When something joined the dungeon she gained the ability to summon whatever she had absorbed and anything it had knowledge about. There had to be more to it, but it was a place to start.
Morning was coming and Gina sensed the unwelcomed guests upstairs were getting ready to leave, it was time to see what the minions had come up with. It turned out to be mostly various ways to burn, maim, stab and drown the guests. None of which Gina really disagreed with, but the bloodthirsty nature of her minions was worrying. Was it the nature of the dungeon that seeped into their brains, were they soulless or extensions of her soul, but just more bloodthirsty... Was her new nature contaminating her soul? Would she devolve into a bloodthirsty murder cave!
No! She had worked through this already, she didn't have time to be distracted right now, besides, she had a book for these things. She added another page to Agenda, find out the nature of the dungeon and what exactly the minions were. They called her mother, that was a clue, but not one she wanted to dig into too much until she was mentally ready to consider the implications. Spiritually ready? Crystally ready? Terms didn't matter right now.
The plan was pretty clear anyway. Kill the murdering thieves and... Did the thieves actually murder anyone? You know what, they would have, they planned it and the threatened it. This was not a time to take an ethical stance until you find a knife in your gut like that one thief got. This was about stopping those that would abuse and enslave others with no remorse, it wasn't about finding out how far they would drop into the darkness, it was about defending those who need it with the tools you have on hand. All Gina had was the power to summon anything she could create and a catalogue of preset deadly objects and beings that had the sole purpose of killing. If killing was how she could protect, then kill she will.
She made a promise though, she would focus on a life of beauty, and just keep the killing to a hobby or side feature of her dungeon, if it couldn't be avoided... and then only the people that would threaten others... probably. A girl did have to eat.
All of this could be figured out later, for now Gina had to get back her cave Inn. She laughed "HEY EVERYONE, CAVE INN!"
-
Jason watched the caravan go, for the next month or more he would have to keep the cavern secured. The caravan took whatever loot they had gathered with them from the back of the caves, so at least the journey wouldn't be a total loss, he also got a vacation for the time being. He had one of his men take a 'Temporarily Closed' sign to the road to cover the sign that said 'INN', that would mean they would only have the 2 locals to watch.
He checked on the two locals, they had left their den with the portabique and were sitting in the bar with two of the guards.
"Hey boss, these two wanted to talk to you."
"Alright, better now than later, make it quick, you're running into my vacation time."
"I don't own this business! I am just a simple farmer who was running it for a while. You don't have to keep me here, I will just go back to the farm and live my life quietly. As long as I am living. If I disappear there will be questions, there doesn't have to be questions.."
"STOP, uh, you, bartender, is he the owner?" Jason could hear the farmer's heartbeat, it was fast and erratic, but it was always fast and erratic when he was around the crew, the man was too lazy to grow any courage.
"Yes, that is true" The bartenders heartbeat was steady, probably telling the truth.
"Do you think this, farmer, will be stupid enough to try and cause trouble? We would kill him if he did, there is nowhere safe from us, not even prison, but we would rather not have the trouble of killing him and anyone he sends over here."
"No, I can promise he is not ambitious enough to do anything, in fact, pay him a couple of silvers a week and he will keep you stocked with food and wood."
Faul looked shocked at Uden's support, but didn't let this sudden turn go to waste. "I would! I don't care who I sell to, I just want to keep living my quiet life without trouble, this whole thing has been too much for me, I just want to be a farmer again." In the moment he truly believed it, that probably saved his life.
"Fine, let him go" Jason motioned to the guards. After they kicked Faul out of the cave, one of the guards came back, Uden gave Jason a look. "He'll be fine, just want to make sure he doesn't do anything that will get him killed. He was right, him disappearing would make life hard, and I'm on vacation time. You wouldn't want to join us would you? I admire how calm you always are, we could work with that."
"No. I am happy being a bartender."
Jason laughed again. "I believe you are, I don't blame you at all, some days I would be happy being a bartender too. Just for my own curiousity, why did you wait until now to tell me he didn't own the bar?"
"You seemed reasonable, the other one seemed more... leave no loose ends?"
"She does get that way, but she is the best administrator I have ever worked with. Oh well. Why don't you get us some drinks, we can just be people for a little while."
Uden went to the bar and brought back some drinks, they sat and chatted for a while about how hard it was to keep people alive. She didn't know if this was him trying to recruit her, or if he just got lonely for real conversations that weren't with co-workers, it didn't matter. Getting to know the guy and giving him a good conversation was the least she could do considering what had to be done. She felt bad for him, how many times was he in her place, having a last conversation with someone out of courtesy before he had to kill them. It was a dark business, she hoped this would be the last time she had these thoughts, it bothered her how calm she was looking into the face of someone that would soon be dead. She wondered if he was thinking the same thing.
It wasn't even noon, and Jason was getting drunk, he usually didn't allow himself to get drunk but his four best men were here with him to guard a cave and one friendly bartender. Bobert was here too, he was going over numbers like always at a corner table. As he sat there he started to feel on edge, he had no idea why, there was nothing to worry about. He looked around and noticed everyone else was was acting on edge too. Something started to work through his alcohol fogged mind, his senses trying to work past the self inflicted poison of drink. It was almost like the waterfall had a rhythm, a song was playing among the crashing, and it wasn't friendly.