Samantha’s day proceeded without crisis. Azure checked in seemingly feeling reasonably fine and had a little extra drive in her, even. That was perfect! She requested Sammy shift her Avatar back to the jungle location so she could meet with and show the place to Redberry, who could move around her own central territory with ease, apparently. Sammy was ultra supportive of this.

Ooh, that’s so awesome! I hope they can connect more and be friends. That would be wonderful. Maybe Azure can brief her in more detail about the recent events, too.

Sammy forwarded that thought to her girlfriend and left her to it, determined to let them bond on their own.

Her next order of business was something slightly overdue: moving Blum, Tinny, and Everett, the ‘prisoners’ of her Mazes, over to The City of Tomorrow. She thought Old Man Everett would be a tough sell being such an introvert, but her description of the city caused him immediate interest and he quickly agreed. It helped that she pointed out how she could copy the castle wholesale as a sub-realm with a doorway to the other, and they could take baby steps forward if they wanted.

However, he did have to take an initial walk. But he was fine with that, even said that he needed one.

The journey was the same for him as it was for Marjorie — down the path over the void, walking on until the road became golden-paved and winding, with the gates high in the distance. Everett paused here to look for a long while, smiling fondly.

“I’d like to sketch it, if I could, Madam,” the old man muttered, resting his hands on a cane. “Just like this, with those lovely colored pencils you gave me. To remember. Not sure if that would be trouble for you, though.”

“Oh, it’s more than fine,” Samantha replied, patting his shoulder. “You can head on up when you’re ready, Mr. Everett. No rush.” She made a bench grow out of the border of the walkway, right where Everett was, and a post next to it that read, ‘Everett’s Outlook.’ With that, she left him to his private moment.

Blum and Tinny, out on the sea as usual when she went to them to deliver the news, broke down when it hit them just what she was offering.

“I don’t deserve this, Goddess,” Blum muttered in between sobs, as she fell to the deck on her knees, two hands up holding her horns, her head continuously shaking. “A clock ticking, seven years of fishing alone… and then I made friends… it was more than enough. Way more. And now you’re telling me I-I’ve got forever and a day of paradise? I just can’t… I…” She trailed off and squeezed her eyes shut.

Tinny was not as dramatic, but tears were falling from his eyes. He turned away, looking out on the sea. “Ain’t right… not with the things I’ve done…”

Samantha knelt to put a hand on Blum’s arm and offered a comforting smile. “The paradise aspect is your choice. Understand that whatever you do, you will contribute your spark to me in this place. You will do good for others on Calrenazzod, do you understand? This is what I charge you, this is your penance if you feel you owe it. Will you accept for the betterment of the living? To contribute to a community of the dead?”

Blum stared at her and swallowed, but began to sober quickly, brows drawing down even as her tears continued to fall. She nodded solemnly as a shaking hand took Samantha’s. “Aye.”

Tinny had turned around to stare as well, face intent. “We can help? How?”

Samantha shrugged with a bigger smile as she looked between them. “Use your experience and expertise. Fish, cook, share. Feed others something wholly authentic, hmm? Maybe. The sky's the limit. Tell stories, fellowship, teach others to fish if they want. Or shoot arrows at bullseyes, or wrestle. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Whatever! It’s to your desires. That’s my project, my utopia of slain scarcity, lack, and strife. I want to see what absolute freedom achieves! You can contribute how you like.”

“Others?” Blum whispered in amazement and shared a glance with Tinny. “You mean more of the dead… and not just by you. Er… begging your pardon, Goddess.”

Samantha winced a bit but nodded. “My Followers will inevitably trickle in, and one day, it could be significant indeed for the struggle that is ahead.”

“I’ll serve,” Tinny declared with sudden passion in his voice — and burning in his eyes. “With all I have in me.”

Even as Samantha was nodding to Tinny, Blum offered, “Me as well. Such as I am, I’ll give it a go.”

Grinning as she stood and helped Blum back up, Sammy called, “So be it!” She pointed off the bow of the ship, where suddenly in the distance there was a giant whirlpool in the middle of the ocean. “Go straight down it!”

Confused, alarmed, and hesitating, the two nonetheless sprang into action to navigate toward the whirlpool, modifying sails, tying things down, and Blum taking the wheel. Tinny was still pretty green, so Blum was barking orders at him, correcting him, and coming in behind him almost continuously.

The whirlpool was like a hole in the world. The boat had quite a lurch when they crested over the edge, as gravity took them down. Sammy laughed in glee while the other two screamed.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Hraaah!” “Kyaaaah!” “Yeeeaah! Haha!”

Fortunately, gravity adjusted to stick them to the boat as they proceeded through a rapidly pulling tunnel with sunlight at the end in the far distance.

“I-is this bloody necessary?!” Blum exclaimed in harried tones.

“Well, we have to take a journey one way or another,” Sammy replied, shrugging. “It was this or walking, and I’m a variety gal. So buck up, Sister!”

Shapes of deeper structures could be seen under the water occasionally, more hints than actual discernible objects, but strange nonetheless. It appeared crystalline and of unusual geometry. Occasionally, some part of it did jut out of the water and they had to navigate around it. Dolphins made of glittering rainbow glass swam to the side for a while, which they marveled at until the phantoms disappeared.

Finally, they came up over another tunnel edge and were zipping off through new waters, under a new sun.

“It’s so much brighter and nicer,” Tinny muttered in wonder. “More… real.”

Blum gasped suddenly and pointed. “Look, Tinny!” The city was visible on the horizon, its towers glittering golden in the light.

Sammy chuckled. “I’ll leave you to it. This section of the ocean is a copy of where you came from. If you want to go back to the castle, follow your normal route. So to speak — you cannot really go back to the Maze, but I’ve copied everything. There will also be a simple physical door to traverse from the castle to the city’s main tower, as well.”

“Thank you, Goddess,” Tinny said, still peering with huge eyes at that sight on the horizon.

“Thank you, Goddess,” Blum mimed absently, also spellbound.

Snickering to herself, Sammy left them to return to Heavenpeak. She didn’t get a quest completion notification, she noticed. “System, what’s my progress on the Afterlife quest? Isn’t that seven?”

There are currently six active members of your Afterlife. Another member is required.

“Oh, so you’re not counting Marjorie?”

The user you refer to cannot add to the total required, no longer being an active resident.

“Bah. Wish I could’ve finished the quest on a more positive note than the hypothetical death of one of my Followers. Hardly something to celebrate.”

There was nothing for it, though. It was what it was.

Digging back into realm development, her collective organization had been conspiring to utilize Grant Prayer (Pantheon) and advance the particular Pantheon quest associated with it. This had to buff those pursuing in some fashion the Pantheon’s Edicts: Fight against tyranny and oppression; support independence and self-sufficiency; promote mutual good, understanding, and friendship between reasonable parties.

The System seemed liberal about applying it to her cause. Active operations were more subdued that day, but many Followers gained it anyway by their efforts within Redberry’s lands and its varied communities, pursuing bridges between such cultures as the Geirkos region and independent tribes like the Chig-Megeksko Frogmen.

The Great Shaman Gejjok Mikmog had steadily added the whole tribe as Followers. Communication with a vast network was bringing trade there, and several buffs worked on people dealing with it. So it was with other communities. Twelve buffs had been distributed around the network.

Investigation by her realm headed by Dick and Zephyr uncovered a bit more information on the Isle of Phantoms. It had once been a rival port of Geirkos and a culture dotting many islands, but an ancient, brutal war had seen it annihilated. The city-state had been called Itha Ranon, or in that dead tongue, ‘Bright Tower.’ Purportedly, they were governed by a sorcerer-king with a strong magical focus overseeing a golden age that their rivals feared and envied. They banded together to destroy it.

The sorcerer-king, whose name was lost, put up a bitter fight but his enemies were too numerous and overpowered them, ultimately sacking the city. As a final retaliatory, suicidal stroke, he sank the majority of it, only sparing his beloved second palace made for his late wife, on a bedrock grown up from the sea to make room. It was made of rare ‘purple marble,’ her favorite color, and decked in silver. He supposedly could not bring himself to sink it, nor the lands she loved to ride upon, rare woodlands and hills free of structures just for her sake.

After the titanic destruction that the spellcraft caused to everyone, essentially wiping out the majority of each party, the palace began getting dismantled to help pay for the losses and debts of the war, much of the rare marble being cut up and sold to the richer lands of the far north.

Various attempts were made to settle the remaining land not destroyed, mostly as an outpost or sea fortress as a bulwark against Naugite raiders and such, but a curse appeared to be over the land — the cause varied in explanation from the haunting of the ghosts to simple anger from the gods. Those who had been involved in the dismantling slowly went mad, and any who ventured to the island did so sooner than later.

It was abandoned and left alone, though various parties occasionally ventured to look for loot in the extensive ruins, dismissive of ‘ghost stories,’ only to suffer the same fate.

Well, this certainly sounds like something to not poke at, but I can’t resist. Especially after the Atlantis-like story. The synergy! The vibes!

Long-ranging efforts headed by Zephyr were underway, to track down a rare book written by a sage who was a mind specialist. He’d collected three separate ‘subjects’ who’d gone mad from the island, to study them, understand the ‘condition,’ and attempt to rehabilitate them.

Zephyr, a man somehow wizened and in his prime at the same time, related those details to Sammy through a mirror portal while lounging in a plush chair. He stroked his trimmed white-and-gray beard as he smoked from a pipe and shrugged. “Perhaps there will be some clue to solving the curse, perhaps not. If we can get one of the rare copies, we’ll see. Normally, I’d laugh in someone’s face if they asked to find it. But your realm allows for many multiples of my former reach for things.”

Sammy nodded. “Mmn. In the meantime, I’m probably good to poke around in the spirit world and seek more through Fate to determine our steps. I’m confident though, Zephyr. Well done.”

“Confident in what? The location?”

“Indeed. I’ve already declared it once, but now I say it knowing why. A tower of sorcery in Itha Ranon will rise again, and greater than before. The Bright Tower will shine like the sun!”