The student asked the wise man, "why is there suffering in the world?"

"There is suffering because the demiurge designed this world to evoke suffering," replied the wise man.

"Why did Yaldabaoth design this world to evoke suffering?" Asked the student.

"Suffering is the goal of this world, for it is the food of the demiurge."

"If the demiurge designed this world to evoke suffering, why then are their times in which we do not suffer?" Asked the student.

"If suffering were all that we knew, we would soon grow numb to the known pains. Joy gives context to new suffering that we might endure. Only when we experience love can we feel the pain of a loved one dying. Only when we have felt full can we comprehend hunger. Only when you have once had something can you know to miss it. Does not the man who was once wealthy suffer all the more when he becomes destitute? Does not the man with the most loving family weep the most bitter tears when they are lost? All joy in this world serves only to heighten the depth of despair."

"There are cases in which men have lives of joy from birth until death. Even if you do not personally know of a man who has lived a life without suffering, it is possible to imagine such a life as possible in this world. Does this not refute your claim?" Asked the student.

"Even if such a man were to exist, he would not live in isolation. This brings me to the second reason that the demiurge has included joys into this world. Even should a man never experience a specific joy, he may know of its existence by seeing it in others. And, having learned the existence of this joy, he realizes what he lacks. In this way, the joy of one man may lead to the suffering of another. Even a man who suffers not a day in his life may generate food for the demiurge in this way."

"You claim that all aspects of this world, including joy, exist only to cause more suffering. Is that correct?"

"Yes," replied the wise man.

"It is possible to imagine a scenario, perhaps after much labor and difficulty through countless generations, that civilization might expand and exert control on this world such that no life needs to suffer. Such a task is nearly unfathomable in its magnitude, but it is possible to imagine such a scenario occurring. Does this not refute your claim?"

"I do not believe that scenario refutes my claim," replied the wise man. "For should such a civilization appear that threatens the designs of the demiurge so directly, the Archons need only dismantle it."

"Would the Archons act so directly?" Asked the student.

"They have before," replied the wise man.

-Excerpt from Dialogs on the Nature of Existence

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Mud walked onto the round stone slab. The slightly pinkish limestone was subtly indented with runes, slowly worn down by time. Before Mud had a chance to attempt decoding the script, the Earth Dragon Lutumocus asked her first question. This was a conversation that demanded all of the golem's focus.

"So," began the Earth Dragon, tapping her flintlike claws against the stone floor, "I hear you want to take over my territory and enslave me. Is that correct?"

Mud was beginning to understand why its attempts at negotiation had failed. The Kobold had misinterpreted its offers as threats. Strange, considering Mud never even suggested it would take anything against their will or perform any hostile action. It had even offered a promise to never perform hostile actions! Although the interpretation was irrational, it was possible to understand how such an error in communication might have occurred.

"No," replied Mud. As soon as the reply was sent, the stone below Mud's feet began to glow red, filling the chamber with an eerie light. After a few seconds, the light faded to nothing, leaving the chamber once again lit only by the smokeless fires set into the stone walls.

The corners of the dragon's mouth curled up, exposing her jagged brown teeth. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, mud pie. That circle you're on can detect falsehoods."

An artifact that can tell if what you say is not true seemed almost unbelievably powerful to Mud. Despite the danger, the golem couldn't pass up such an opportunity. Quickly, Mud blurted out a problem that had been troubling it, reframed as a statement of fact. "There exists for any problem for which an algorithm exists that can verify a potential solution in polynomial time an algorithm by which the initial problem can be solved in polynomial time."

This time, the stone slab instead glowed blue. Lutumocus's grin faltered at Muds unexpected statement.

"What does blue mean?" Demanded Mud.

"Um," the ancient and powerful dragon looked down at the slab. "It means the speaker doesn't know if what they said is true or not."

"Does this slab in fact not detect falsehoods, but merely the intention to lie?"

"Well, technically, yes. But that doesn't sound as impressive... I would never lie, but I might have phrased it to sound more..." Lutumocus refocused a golden eye on Mud, who was now limp and unmoving. "Are you trying to manipulate your thought patterns right now so you can use cognitive dissonance to trick the circle?"

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"No," replied Mud. The circle turned red.

"I've never had such an apathetic audience. Aren't you scared of me?"

It is true that Lutumocus is fully capable of killing Mud in an instant. However, Mud did not believe being scared of her would assist in avoiding being destroyed. "No." The stone circle didn't light up.

"You're pretty brave, mud pie. But the problem here is that your bravery is disproportionate to your actual strength. And now, you've entered my territory without my permission, and you've insulted me. Tell me why I shouldn't just destroy you."

Mud looked around at the massive room, filled to bursting with fine art. Considering the size of the room and the density of objects, there were likely thousands of individual pieces. Somehow, Mud had always known this day would come. "In exchange for you not destroying me, I will clean your entire treasure horde in one day."

Lutumocus looked at Mud skeptically. "In one day? Even if that was possible, you would damage them if you worked that quickly."

Mud had never felt so offended in its life. "I will demonstrate my abilities." Mud removed the rag and cleaning liquid which it had purchased from the Geltheas market some time ago. In smooth, confident motions, Mud wiped down the stone slab it stood on. With each stroke, Mud embued a small amount of mana corrupted with the Ideal of Home, tainted with the concept of repair. In less than a minute, the slab was spotless. The formerly faded and worn runes were once again visible. Carved motifs of speaking diplomates that Mud had not even noticed before its cleaning became visible as the wear of ages was restored.

Its work complete, Mud returned to stand in the center of the platform. Lutumocus walked forward to examine the golem's work. After a few moments of inspection, the dragon nodded and sat back down. "Fine work, and quickly too. I will allow you to clean my artwork. If I am pleased with your work, I will forgive your previous crimes. If anything is damaged, I will eat you."

Mud got to work immediately. Like a brown blur, the golem skated around the cave polishing, cleaning, restoring, and dusting. Lutumocus even sent a Kobold to retrieve additional cleaning supplies. When they arrived, Mud split its body into three, each cleaning different artwork. Additional divisions were too risky, as the split in mental focus may cause a mistake.

Although the task was difficult and hectic, and the consequences for failure dire, Mud was at peace. This was, quite literally, the kind of work that Mud was created to do.

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How did it end up like this?

Mud was supposed to be my chance to become a hero. He's clever, strong, professional, has access to amazing resources... and then the first mission we go on together we murder a noble. Then, during the wave, when everyone was in trouble, we just ran away.

And then there's those weird brainwashed people he keeps in his house. What's the deal with them? I really want to know, but I'm too scared to ask. I know Mud can use mind mana. He's already used it on me a few times, I think. There's no way my recovery after the murder was normal. It feels harder to think these days, like there's a constant fog in my mind. If I upset Mud, will I end up like those two? Cob said one of the brainwashed people is named Bark. Wasn't that the guy on the missing persons poster?

Now we're captured by dragons. Why aren't Cob and Mud freaking out right now? Mud just calmly went with that dragon, and Cob is... he's still hitting on that Kobold. I'm not one to judge, but a human being attracted to a Kobold is really weird. I hope he's just pretending so that he can get it to help us.

This party... they're all completely insane. The only reasonable one is Ego, but she barely talks. Maybe if she spoke more often I would find out she's insane too. I'm in a group of crazy people and now I'm going to get eaten by a dragon. I probably won't even taste good, I'm all skin and bones. I hope when the dragon eats me it isn't painful.

If I ever get a chance to go out on my own... next time I'm by myself, I'm just going to leave this group. I'll go through the woods back to Geltheas by myself if I have to. Taking a chance on my own is better than spending any more time with these lunatics.

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"Hey, Novus." Novus flinched and looked with a start towards Cob, who had just called out to her. She sat near the center of the prison circle, arms hugging her legs against her chest. "Get up, they're letting us go."

It took a moment for Novus to register what she had just been told. When she finally did, her response was confusion. "What?"

Cob shrugged exaggeratedly. "Yeah, looks like the boss made a deal with their Queen. We can't leave the territory, but we don't need to stay as prisoners anymore." While he was talking, a Kobold guard approached Cob from behind.

Novus scurried backward on all fours, taking some distance from the approaching Magical Beast. "Don't worry," said Cob. "She's my friend. You don't need to be scared of her, despite how she looks."

"Oh..." Novus calmed down slightly, the visions of their rapid capture by a Dragon and Kobolds still fresh in her mind.

"Huh? Oh, I was talking to Div. You've been totally acting like a crazy person since we got her, Novus. Rocking back and forth in the center of the room like that. It's like this is the first time you've been arrested or something."

"It is the first time I've been arrested!" Novus shouted.

Cob shrugged. "Well, you get used to it. It's not all bad. I got some free sandals at the Geltheas jail when I got arrested without shoes once. They were really comfortable, I wore them for a year. I'm actually a bit disappointed we got released before getting a free meal." Cob turned towards Div. "Speaking of food, can you show me where I can get something to eat? And if you're free, maybe you could join me for dinner?"

Div nodded, and the two of them left through a side passage.

Once they were gone, Novus realized she was completely alone. Slowly, Novus stood up and walked to the edge of the circle. Hesitantly, she pushed her arm through the edge. It passed through without resistance, the circle inactive. It really looked like she was free to go.

But to go where, and do what? She was still in the middle of a mountain of Dragons and Kobolds. While they were being peaceful for now, Kobolds were known to hunt and eat humans.

Novus looked down at her bare arms. No shield, sword, or armor. They had been confiscated during the capture. If one of the Kobolds decided to eat her, would she be able to fight it off empty-handed? Her thoughts were interrupted when her stomach rumbled.

Since she was no longer a prisoner, they probably wouldn't be bringing her food. Looking around the multiple tunnels connecting to the prison room, she realized she had absolutely no idea about the layout or size of the tunnels. If she got lost, she could very well starve to death before finding help.

Novus quickly ran to the tunnel Cob had disappeared down. "Wait for me!"