It took almost 4 hours for all of them to be able to reach the pillar where the doorway was located. Adriel had to use a lot of mana to keep the drones from being pushed around by the wind, and because of it, he had to rest between each trip. The good part was that this allowed them to see the two moons in the sky. Even if one of them was just a sliver of light in the black sky. In all fairness, the original moon was already close to the third quarter, the in-between point between a full moon and a new moon. However, the second moon was so big and so bright that it outshone the first one. It was so bright, giving off an incredible silver light that covered the entire room. During her turn to be carried by the drones with Adriel, Hera noticed how the light would give off a similar effect as the sunset, but instead of one large golden dragon made by the pillars glowing with the sun, the moon created several smaller Wyverns looking up to the moon with happy expressions. She couldn't help but wonder if this was made by someone or not. If Tailou asked her to take care of Luna, maybe he also had a hand on the current shape of the pillars. Hera made a mental note to remember to ask him about it later, but one way or another, it was a sight to behold.
Just as Hera arrived at the right pillar, her tablet started buzzing, and it didn't stop for a while. They were already close enough to have access to the internet. Hera didn't even talk to Bonnie or Alex during that time; the three of them just answered messages and let their loved ones know they were ok. The Empress' dad, Eridan, also made a video call the second she sent him a message. There were some tears, mostly coming from the man, who never doubted his little girl was doing well, but still felt very emotional. While having that conversation, he also mentioned some problems that were going on in the MAZE, the Last Line of Defense was becoming more active, and the Guild was cracking down on some people who they were considering possible threats. Eridan said he would give her the details in person; after all, they were just two days away from Boothudurn. The connecting room was called 'Farmer's Delight,' a wide expanse of natural farms that were constantly growing food with a small city close by. Two doorways away, they would arrive in Dzviery, which had been rebuilt enough to become a large city again. It would still take some time for it to regain the title of a metropolis, but the room was already on the path for it.
Eridan's warning was mostly due to the increased security to cross to lower layers. He remembered how Hera found it odd that people stopped Adriel for no reason when he helped Helena move her lab, and that seemed to have gotten worse. Aside from that, the only thing he said was that people missed her, and the Royal Explorers seemed to be doing well. Rutigan stopped by Eridan's house about once a week to check up on him and see if he had any news. He also told her how his business motto was now a reality. The dwarven King ordered a bed for himself, and now he could proudly announce that kings lay in a Kingsley bed. That comment earned a hearty chuckle not just from Hera but from Bonnie and Alex, who were nearby. They were doing their own thing, but since the Empress was on a video call, it was hard not to hear the conversation.
Unfortunately, Hera had to say her temporary goodbyes. If she kept talking with her dad, she wouldn't stop, and they still had to go back home. She also wanted to take this moment to understand what was going on with the MAZE.
"This is messed up…" Alex mumbled a few minutes after Hera started to catch up with the news.
"What?" Bonnie turned to the assassin.
"Have you read about the centaurs? What happened to them."
"No, what happened?" Bonnie got closer to see Alex's tablet.
"Let me see it too," Hera moved to see what the assassin was talking about.
"Hang on, let me do this," Alex searched for a moment and found a video with the full explanation of the story.
It was a bit long, but over the course of 15 minutes, the reporter told what happened. According to them, a group of rebels that included a few of the strongest humans in the MAZE went searching for the centaur for revenge after what they did in Dzviery. These people went there behind the Guild's back and executed all the centaurs, including the elderly and children. To make matters worse, it was revealed that a few of them had ties to the Last Line of Defense, being either sympathizers or closely related to people who were already known members of the terrorist organization. Unfortunately, the Guild wasn't able to figure out their plans in time, but they were able to arrest everyone who was part of the attack.
There wasn't a complete list of those involved, but a few names were mentioned, including two that caught Hera's attention. First, Insomniac was one of the leaders of this group and someone who apparently had close ties with the Last Line of Defense. Second, Frostbite was presented as the person responsible for bringing them all to justice. She apparently discovered the plans, warned the Guild, and led the charge to capture the murderers. Being able to stop them and trap them with ice since she reached the group just after the attack was over, and they were all weak and wounded.
Now, almost all those involved were in jail. Split into groups based on their levels. If their family wanted to get in contact with them, they would have to go through the guild and their actual location wouldn't be shared to avoid any possible attempts at breaking them out. The reporter went on to describe the details of what happened with the centaurs, which were very gruesome, calling it nothing short of a genocide. After that there was a statement from the Guild apologizing for what happened. Saying that no civilization should be treated like that and how the crimes of one are not the crimes of their people. Hera couldn't help but feel weirded out about that. It didn't sound like it was something spoken out of guilt but out of concern about the perception others would have of the Guild. As if they were trying to detach themselves from the circumstances even if their members were the ones responsible for it.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Aside from that, there were no big events, not really. The world kept going; some countries and cities had elections, movies came out, artists performed in their shows, and festivals happened. It was somewhat sad to think that, for the vast majority of people, Hera and her party being stuck here had no effect whatsoever. However, it was also comforting to know that things would still be mostly the same. While they were looking things over, Mylo arrived. Just like everyone else, he grabbed his tablet and started looking over what happened outside. Hera couldn't help but feel a bit weird about this. Everyone seemed to have a lot of people who they wanted to talk to, but for her, almost everyone she knew was already there. There was Amanda, the granddaughter of the couple who wired her to work in a store when she moved to the city, but they were not that close. Still, the Empress sent her a text, as well as one to Mark and to Leo, who she hadn't talked to in a while. That's when she remembered that the Royal Explorers were not using the basic messaging app. Instead, they were using one where they could set up different channels, share files and organize their discoveries better. Opening that app, she was surprised to see how active it was. It was still with the same number of people, but the dwarves had gone wild with some of the channels. They had one just to discuss ideas for a movie night they started having and another to discuss any weird theories they had about the MAZE.
As she was reading through the messages, she noticed one channel, 'Messages to Hera.' Thinking it would be just questions or things they were not sure how to do, she opened that channel only to be surprised by what she was seeing. For one, each message was marked as private, meaning that only Hera and the sender could see them, but if she wanted, the Empress could also reply. Second, were the contents; instead of just questions, there were messages, almost like a diary, and there were thousands of them.
She read about how Bralac started working with some other crafters to build mobile settlements and maybe even some vehicles for the Royal Explorers. Callena, on the other hand, sent out various pictures of men and women that she met during her trips back and forth from Boothudurn. She and Farica were still dating a lot and seemed to be enjoying themselves, despite their age. Then again, 100 was not old for dwarven standards. All other Royal Explorers had sent one message or another. A few were just talking about their lives and how it was different now; others shared their ideas, dreams, and discoveries, and a couple went a more depressing route, talking with Hera as if they would never see her again.
As she read the messages, Hera noticed the channel about the movie night currently being used. They were trying to decide the genre and were divided between space-based Sci-fi or a Victorian mystery movie. Unfortunately, the vote was split in the middle since Legan, one of the underage kids that were working with the logistics part of their operation before the Empress vanished, couldn't go. He was currently training to get his role which would allow him to join the actual missions of the Royal Explorers. Hera noticed how everyone seemed to be participating in the conversation and added her own message 'I like both, but I'm in the mood for Sci-fi.'
She thought it would be a funny way to tell them she was close. Pretending that nothing happened and it was all business as usual. However, unlike the constant stream of messages that was going on, as soon as she sent her reply, the conversation stopped. Hera got worried the Royal Explorers felt weird with her in the mix. Maybe it would be like an annoying boss trying to participate in the company happy hour. Her fear was unfounded, and after around two minutes, when the shock of receiving her message passed, the chat exploded, with everyone asking about her and what had happened. She chuckled and tried replying, only to have her answers drowned in the sea of text. This prompted Trillian, who controlled all the channels, to make a new one where Hera, and only Hera, could reply to the other messages so everyone could read what she had to say. He explained all that in a quick private message and added that he was very happy she was ok.
In the end, she didn't want to explain everything through text, but she still answered a few questions, telling everyone that she was ok and that they would be home in a couple of days. She also asked what was going on but said that she would give them all more details in person. She finally felt like she actually had a group of people worrying about her, which warmed her heart. That wasn't fair, and Hera knew about it. Her friends, who were, with one exception, the people who cared the most about her, were all here, but still having a large group of people waiting for her return felt great. Not that she had any intentions of vanishing like that again.
As she was still talking with the Royal Explorers, Blue appeared and asked everyone to gather around. She was dripping wet, but at least she didn't seem injured," Guys, check this out. I found out what that thing Helena saw is."
The controller opened her tablet and showed a few pictures while explaining that she used her storm to make a small hurricane around the doorway to push the water away. In front of that small island, there was a statue, a statue of a wyvern that was extremely familiar. However, it was bigger, much bigger than Luna. Just its head was already the size of the wyvern that accompanied them through the dungeon when she was fully grown, and the scales were all gray, "I managed to inspect it, and it said this was Selene, the silver wyvern who created the second moon. I think this is the original Luna."
"And why did their names change?"
"I don't know. Maybe privacy? I remember something about names inside dungeons not matching their original versions," Hera replied.
They continued talking for a while until Helena appeared from the light arrows she fired, followed not long after by Adriel and Shane, being the last ones to arrive. With everyone here and Bonnie already having checked the next room's map to confirm they had hotels in there, they all crossed the doorway, returning to civilization.